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Bancroft 

Why  a 

World  Centre 

of 

Industry 

at  San  Francisco    | 

Bay 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


A  Wtttlh  Ol^ntr^  nf  3nbu0trg 
at  Bnn  3Franri0C0  lag? 


BY 
HUBERT  HOWE  BANCROFT 


The  First  Port  of  the  Pacific ;  its  present 
and  its  future.  An  Exposition  in  Politics 
and  Economics. 


NEW  YORK 
THE  BANCROFT  COMPANY.  PUBLISHERS 

1916 


COMPLETE  WORKS 

WEST  AMERICAN  SERIES  OF  HISTORIES 

RESOURCES  OF  MEXICO 

CHRONICLES  OF  THE  BUILDERS 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  FAIR 

THE  BOOK  OF  WEALTH 

THE  NEW  PACIFIC 

POPULAR  HISTORY  OF  MEXICO 

RETROSPECTION 

MODERN  FALLACIES 

WHY  A  WORLD  CENTRE  OF  INDUSTRY 

AT  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY  ? 

LITERARY  INDUSTRIES 


at  §an  JraitriHrn  lag? 


BY 

HUBERT  HOWE  BANCROFT 


NEW  YORK 

THE  BANCROFT  COMPANY.  PUBLISHERS 

1916 


c--> 


WHY  A  WORLD  INDUSTRIAL  CENTRE 
AT  SAN  FRANCISCO  BAY? 


Why  should  there  be  in  time  to  come  a  World  In- 
dustrial Centre  upon  the  shores  of  San  Francisco  Bay? 

Because  Nature  has  prepared  for  it,  Progress  ordains 
it,  and  History  confirms  it. 
£?  Because  among  states  and   nations  California  has  a 

unique  individuality  which  is  sure  to  find  expression  as 
the  border  lands  of  the  Pacific  unfold  into  the  higher 
civilized  life. 

Because  wherever  is  situated  the  Centre  of  Industry 
there  will  be  found  the  Centre  of  Empire. 

Because  while  the  nations  of  Europe  with  their 
Atlantic  traffic  decline,  the  ports  of  the  Pacific  will  rise 
into  prominence  under  the  impulse  of  superior  develop- 
ment. 

Because  W^orld  Supremacy  may  thus  be  placed  within 
reach  of  the  future  occupants  of  the  First  Port  of  the 
Pacific. 

Because  as  the  Orient  and  Occident  here  meet  geo- 
graphically, they  should  join  hands  commercially  as  well, 
products  from  East  and  West  standing  side  by  side  as  a 
World  Commercial  Clearing  House. 

Because  if  the  Centre  of  Industry  on  the  Pacific  is  not 
established  by  the  people  of  San  Francisco  Bay,  others 
elsewhere  will  occupy  the  field,  and  thenceforward  domi- 
nate the  great  ocean,  both  economically  and  politically. 

1 


2601.'^0 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Because  Japan  has  already  made  distinctive  advance 
in  that  direction,  the  United  States  government  by  its 
impolicy  assisting. 

Because  we  prefer  the  white  race  rather  than  the 
yellow  race  as  arbiters  of  our  destiny. 

And,  while  appreciating  beauty  as  an  economic  asset 
and  esthetic  culture  as  a  measure  of  civilization,  it  is  well 
to  bear  in  mind  that  to  develop  a  pretty  town  to  play  in 
is  not  industrialism. 

From  where  history  begins  people  wandered  forth, — 
from  the  banks  of  the  Nile  to  Arabia,  from  the  valley  of 
the  Euphrates  to  Persia  and  the  shores  of  the  Caspian 
and  Mediterranean.  A  stream  of  racial  siftings  set  in 
down  the  Persian  gulf,  and  sweeping  across  to  India, 
reached  the  farthest  east  on  the  western  border  of  the 
Pacific.  There,  isolated,  hidden  behind  a  wall  of  exclu- 
siveness,  preferring  peace  yet  not  thereby  escaping  Avar, 
development  languished ;  the  people  became  inane, 
apathetic,  and  slumbered  millenniums  away,  until  at  the 
present  reawakening  of  the  world  let  us  hope  that  they 
also  will  awaken  to  a  realization  of  their  economic  po- 
tentialities and  take  their  proper  place  among  nations. 

Meanwhile,  in  and  around  this  hypothetical  cradle  of 
the  race  humanit}^  seethed  through  the  centuries  in  the 
effort  to  rise  superior  to  the  brute  creation,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  so  far  as  to  establish  industrial  relations  and 
build  cities,  as  Thebes  and  Memphis,  Babylon  and 
Nineveh,  though  never  yielding  their  brute  love  of  blood- 
letting. 

One  after  another  each  centre  of  industry  became  a 
centre  of  empire.  When  factories  crowded  the  shores  of 
Phoenicia,  Tyre  and  Sidon  rose  to  prominence,  in  which 
Carthage  later  partook,  assuming  commercial  supremacy. 
India  supplied  cotton,  while  up  and  down  the  Nile  was 

2 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

traffic  in  cattle,  grain,  metals,  and  slaves.  Caravans 
traversed  the  deserts  between  west  and  east,  bringing 
also  spoils  from  the  interior  of  Africa,  lion  and  tiger  skins, 
ostrich  feathers  and  ivory.  The  cities  of  Greece  and  Italy 
came  into  the  light;  a  busy  commerce  filled  the  Mediter- 
ranean ports  with  the  varied  products  of  all  countries, 
while  Constantinople  developed  as  the  key  to  Europe 
and  Asia. 

Venice,  rescued  from  the  sea,  what  with  fighting  Turks 
JTnd  assisting  crusaders,  held  imperial  sway  for  a  thousand 
years,  until  Vasco  da  Gama  doubled  his  cape.  Rome  took 
her  turn  as  mistress  of  the  world.  The  Netherlands,  the 
Hanseatic  league,  and  other  places  and  influences  ap- 
peared and  disappeared  as  the  problems  of  progress 
worked  themselves  out  among  the  children  of  men. 

While  the  world  centred  around  the  Mediterranean, 
the  Mediterranean  was  the  world,  with  its  blazing  barrier 
at  the  south  and  its  impenetrable  wall  of  ice  in  the  north. 
After  that  were  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  the  mind 
of  man  expanding  with  the  expanse  of  ocean. 

In  due  time  came  to  all  primitive  peoples  the  end  ; 
with  the  rest  into  this  maelstrom  of  humanity  came 
youth,  manhood,  old  age ;  it  is  the  law.— and  death.  All 
that  is  born  must  die,  men  and  nations,  cults  and  cultures, 
worlds  and  systems  of  worlds.  So  died  primeval  Asia, 
her  cities  buried  under  their  own  debris,  her  once  fertile 
plains  desolated  as  by  the  destroying  angel,  leaving  dead 
lands  watered  by  a  dead  sea. 

Whereby  we  may  know  that  Europe  must  die,  and 
America.  All  will  pass  as  Asia  has  passed,  and  the  bril- 
liant cities  of  to-day  become  as  the  cities  of  the  Shinar 
plains.  Then  will  men  return  and  recover  the  waste 
places,  or  wall  they  pass  away  altogether?  Even  now  the 
decline  of  Europe  may  be  at  hand  ;  who  can  tell?  Already 
the  throes  of  dissolution  appear.    And  as  in  kaiser  kultur 

3 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACH^C 

and  blood-lust  the  acme  of  infamy  has  been  attained,  so 
the  sunnnit  of  intellectual  develoj^ment  may  have  been 
reached,  now  to  totter  and  fall  over  into  semi-insanity, 
as  displayed  in  this  most  insane  of  conflicts. 

For  if  Germany  wins  in  the  present  war,  Eng-land, 
France,  and  Italy  will  become  as  is  Belg^ium.  which  stands 
forever  as  a  specimen  of  kaiser  rule  and  kaiser  kultur. 
If  German)-  wins,  peace  propagandists  will  be  relegated 
to  the  chinme}^  corner,  for  America  then  must  fight  or 
become  like  China.  If  a  premature  peace,  then  will  follow 
a  period  preparatory  for  yet  greater  conflicts,  which  will 
be  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Europe  will  then  fall  into 
decay,  Germany,  like  Rome,  following  her  victims. 

We  will  not  believe  the  end  so  near,  yet  death,  always 
present,  seems  sudden  when  it  comes.  No  more  thought 
had  Sardanapalus  or  Nebuchadnezzar  than  has  Roths- 
child or  Rockefeller  to-day  of  being  spoiled  of  their  pos- 
sessions and  turned  out  to  grass. 

The  decline  of  ancient  culture  in  Asia  was  followed 
later  by  the  lapse  of  Europe  into  the  Dark  Age,  when 
men  revelled  in  ignorance  and  brutism  to  their  hearts' 
content  for  another  thousand  years,  light  finally  coming 
in  from  the  uncovering  of  a  New  World  in  the  west. 

For  while  yet  the  dark  age  enveloped  Europe,  the 
leaven  of  progress  working  in  men's  minds  presented  a 
round  moving  earth,  which  if  true  oft'ered  a  western  way 
to  the  eastern  India  of  Mandeville  and  Marco  Polo. 
And  as  the  borders  of  the  Mediterranean  world  enlarged, 
the  hitherto  timid  mariners,  creeping  forth  from  the 
pillars  of  Hercides,  no  longer  hugged  the  coast  at  either 
hand  but  struck  boldly  out  upon  the  Sea  of  Darkness. 

And  from  that  day  to  this, — indeed  we  may  say  from 
the  beginning,  the  course  of  empire  has  ever  been  \Vestr 
ward,  following  the  pathway  of  the  sun, — from  Asia  to 
eastern  Europe,  from  eastern  Europe  to  western  Europe, 

4 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

from  Europe  to  America  and  across  the  continent, 
metropolitan  cities  marking  the  way, — Pahnyra  Alex- 
andria and  Athens,  Venice  Rome  Paris  and  London,  New 
York  Chicago  San  Francisco.  Thus  slowly  through 
scores  of  centuries  the  stream  of  progress  has  continued 
its  way,  never  deviating  from  its  course  until  its  ultimate 
and  inevitable  end  should  be  attained  on  the  shore  of  the 
Pacific  at  San  Francisco  bay,  where  the  new  west  faces 
the  old  east,  and  where  ready  at  hand  are  all  the  requi- 
sites for  high  achievement. 

Glancing  thus  at  the  incipient  stages  of  economic  de- 
velopment, and  following  the  trend  of  civilization  to  its 
logical  limit,  what  have  we  learned  and  where  do  we  find 
ourselves?  We  see  that  death  precedes  new  birth  as 
night  the  day,  the  old  east  dying  out  as  the  new  west 
rises  to  greet  the  sun.  We  find  ourselves  standing  on 
the  border  of  a  great  ocean,  whose  waters  equal  all  the 
other  waters  of  the  earth  combined,  and  cover  one  fourth 
of  the  earth's  surface,  while  a  canal  cut  through  the  conti- 
nent into  this  ocean  makes  commercially  all  the  waters 
of  the  earth  one  sea. 

More  startling  still,  we  find  ourselves  gazing  out  upon 
a  sea  whose  waters  mark  the  limit  of  progressional  migra- 
tions. Here  halts  the  star  of  empire;  here  sets  the  sun 
of  civilization,  illuminating  never  again  a  new  or  virgin 
west,  but  rising  the  morrow's  morn  on  the  old,  old  east, 
with  its  dead  sea,  its  blistered  hills  and  sterile  plains,  its 
ruined  cities  and  decayed  humanity. 

Here  then  upon  the  shore  surrounding  San  Francisco 
bay  is  the  natural  and  logical  place  for  a  World  Centre 
of  Industry,  where  the  problems  of  the  future  may  be 
wrought  out,  until  the  sun  of  progress  turns  backward  in 
Its  course,  or  wakens  to  new  life  the  dead  nations  of  the 
ancient  east. 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

And  in  this  coming  together  of  West  and  East,  with 
only  the  waters  between,  there  will  be  many  undreamed- 
of developments,  each  as  magical  as  any  which  have  yet 
appeared  upon  this  earth. 

Why  is  it  then  that  San  Francisco  is  not  further  ad- 
vanced in  the  accomplishment  of  her  high  destiny?  Why 
sit  we  quiescent  at  the  Golden  Gate  as  though  blind  to 
our  many  advantages,  blind  to  our  geographical  position, 
blind  to  the  importance  of  our  matchless  climate,  a 
climate  void  of  the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  void  of  the 
enervating  influences  of  the  south  which  militates  against 
the  permanency  of  extensive  factories,  void  of  the  floods 
and  famines,  the  death-dealing  sun-blights  and  wind- 
storms of  midcontinent  and  the  east? 

Is  it  that  we  fail  to  appreciate  the  economic  value  of 
such  a  climate  as  an  industrial  asset,  aside  from  the  health 
and  comfort  of  living  and  working  in  it ;  more  especially 
when  with  it  there  are  plentiful  food  products,  wharf  and 
factory  sites,  bay  shore  enough  for  the  world's  work, 
accessible  raw  material  and  cheap  power,  oil  tanked  in 
the  earth,  metals  in  the  mountains,  money  without  limit 
for  all  legitimate  purposes,  and  the  markets  of  the  world 
at  our  feet?  We  have  but  to  open  our  Golden  Gate  to 
show  a  spot  singularly  suitable  not  only  for  a  World 
Centre  of  Industry  but  for  a  World  Commercial  Clearing 
House,  such  as  was  so  long  in  successful  operation  at 
Venice  and  London,  where  a  full  supply  of  the  world's 
raw  material,  products,  and  manufactures  were  kept 
always  stored  for  sale.  At  present  New  York  harbor  is 
the  greatest  of  seaports  as  the  Atlantic  is  commercially 
the  greatest  of  oceans,  but  as  the  far  greater  natural 
wealth  of  the  far  greater  ocean  is  utilized  the  First  Port 
of  the  Pacific  should  attain  an  eminence  surpassing  all 
others.  Here  is  this  matchless  bay,  which  with  its 
tidal     rivers    tributary    ofifers    dockage    space    practically 

6 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

unlimited,  over  five  hundred  miles  of  water  frontage 
being  already  available  for  pier  construction,  which  may 
be  further  increased  by  dredging  sloughs  and  reclaiming 
tule  lands. 

Or  is  it  that  the  choicest  gift  of  the  gods  has  fallen 
to  our  lot,  contentment?  Is  it  that  with  the  purple  hazy 
sunshine  and  delicious  air,  with  health  according"  to  our 
wisdom  and  wealth  sufficient  for  our  needs,  is  it  that  we 
lack  industrial  energy  if  indeed  we  do  not  lack  industrial 
intelligence? 

No,  not  that.  On  every  side  are  marks  of  laudable 
ambition,  of  a  keen  desire  for  civic  betterment  and 
economic  advancement,  all  efforts  tending  thereunto  save 
the  one  and  only  essential. 

What  is  it  then  that  we  lack?  What  is  it  that  bars 
our  progress?  AAHiy  idle  we  time  away  and  see  others 
sweeping  our  ships  and  sailors  from  the  sea,  our  factories 
from  the  land,  using  the  ver}^  canal  which  we  have  made 
to  thrust  us  still  further  aside  and  bring  upon  us  the 
contempt  of  all  progressive  peoples? 

Let  us  diagnose  the  situation  a  bit. 

The  first  step  toward  civic  betterment  is  to  see  and 
acknowledge  civic  errors. 

Watching  the  play  of  royalty  in  Europe  we  can  but 
conclude  that  the  best  king  is  he  who  is  least  a  king. 
Watching  the  play  of  representative  democracy  in  the 
United  States  of  America  we  can  but  note  the  political 
propaganda  that  turns  our  ablest  men  into  sharpers,  our 
purest  men  into  paths  of  indirection,  into  self-seeking- 
demagogues  and  panders  to  party;  we  can  but  view 
with  concern  those  phases  of  liberty  which  lead  to  liber- 
tinism, and  that  growth  of  power  and  population  which 
tends  toward  the  degeneration  rather  than  the  elevation 
of  the  body  politic.  It  is  a  question  not  yet  settled 
whether  a  too  free  democracy,  irresponsible  and  loosely 

7 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

administered,  can  endure  before  an  autocratic  government 
with  a  constant  tendency  toward  absolute  despotism. 
We  have  examples  in  Mexico  under  Porfirio  Diaz,  in 
Germany  under  kaiser  kultur,  and  in  the  predilections  of 
Japan. 

When  our  forefathers,  of  blessed  memory,  found  them- 
selves independent  of  England,  with  lands  unlimited, 
they  said,  Go  to,  now ;  let  others  come,  the  priest-ridden 
and  prince-ridden,  let  all  come  who  will ;  we  will  give 
them  liberty,  homes,  free  schools  and  free  religion.  The 
cause  is  the  cause  of  humanity,  the  cause  of  the  poor ;  we 
will  be  to  them  Providence  and  make  money  by  it. 

Which  was  all  well  enough  provided  they  were  so 
inclined,  and  provided  they  had  kept  to  themselves  that 
inalienable  gift  of  God,  self-government,  and  had  not 
flung  it  away  to  strangers,  as  witness  the  ofifice-holders 
in  the  United  States  this  day. 

The  good  work  was  begun  b}^  killing  Indians 
and  enslaving  Africans,  and  concluded  by  the  expulsion 
of  the  Chinese.  The  irony  of  it  our  fathers  never  sus- 
pected. 

The  redemption  of  the  world  being  thus  so  satis- 
factorily provided  for,  the  New  Englanders  came  in  their 
migrations  to  the  Ohio  valley,  their  eyes  still  turned 
westward.  California,  and  half  way  back  to  the  Atlantic, 
all  save  a  seaboard  strip  of  Franciscan  missions  was 
primeval  wilderness ;  where  San  Francisco  now  stands 
were  dunes  and  chaparral  where  rabbits  burrowed  and 
grizzly  bears  were  lassoed. 

The  far-away  United  States  was  composed  of  a  good 
class  of  people  from  England,  Holland,  and  Germany, 
or  their  descendants.  They  were  for  the  most  part  thought- 
ful men  of  probity  who  had  come  hither  for  a  purpose. 

At  that  time  our  government  was  nearer  pure  repub- 
licanism than  it  will  probably  ever  be  again.    It  was  more 

8 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

ably  and  honestly  administered,  if  we  except  the  admin- 
istrations of  Lincoln  and  Roosevelt,  than  it  has  been  at 
any  time  since.  If  the  truth  must  be  told,  it  is  the  old, 
old  story, — with  the  increase  of  wealth  and  power  mor- 
ality and  integrity  took  a  seat  below  the  salt,, 

Then  and  thenceforward  our  history  might  be  written. 
The  Land  of  Errors  and  Lost  Opportunities.  For  among 
the  many  measures  then  opportune  were  the  establishing 
of  a  government  and  the  breeding  of  a  race  such  as  never 
before  had  inhabited  this  earth.  Then  too  might  have 
been  accomplished  the  differentiation  of  rascality  and 
republicanism ;  the  return  of  our  Africans  to  the  homes 
of  their  ancestors ;  the  conservation  of  our  natural  re- 
sources to  the  abolition  of  all  taxes  and  imposts  for  all 
time; — all  this,  and  more,  as  citizens,  not  as  socialists, 
whose  radicalism  is  an  abomination. 

We  can  scarcely  be  called  a  government  by  the  people 
for  the  people,  but  rather  a  government  by  cliques  and 
cabals  for  the  benefit  of  their  leaders,  a  government  by 
office-mongers  the  essence  of  whose  polity  is  bribery  and 
the  end  coroded  selfishness. 

Bribery,  the  moving  spirit  in  our  organizations,  the 
essential  oil  of  our  elections, — not  bribery  of  the  vulgar 
sort  by  money  payment,  but  all  the  same  bribery  pure 
and  palpable.  I  do  not  give  my  man  a  check  for  stealing 
a  convention,  or  wrecking  a  party,  or  making  me  presi- 
dent, but  I  buy  him  just  the  same.  If  he  prefers  office, 
or  political  influence,  something  as  he  naively  asserts  that 
money  cannot  buy,  I  have  a  stock  in  trade  of  that  sort  of 
goods  after  election.  And  so  on  all  down  the  line,  the 
ballot-box  and  not  the  cash-box  for  bribery  of  high 
degree. 

And  as  human  nature  is  constructed  it  is  difficult  to 
get  away  from  it.  It  is  considered  no  part  of  wisdom 
among  practical  men  to  expect  something  for  nothing, 

9 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

even  in  the  manipulation  of  pure  patriotism.  Yet  there 
must  be  honesty  somewhere,  even  in  party  politics.  All 
the  same  one  escapes  many  rascalities  declining  office 
under  a  republic. 

The  standard  of  United  States  citizenship  was  low-ered 
by  the  civil  war,  which  carried  off  thousands  of  the  flower 
of  American  patriotism, — not  immigrants  nor  hyphenates, 
but  Americans,  sons  of  the  makers  of  the  republic, — 
rendering  other  thousands  unfit  for  anything  but  to  hold 
office  and  draw  pensions,  and  all  because  of  the  worthless 
African,  worthless  for  any  purpose  but  to  adorn  cotton 
plantations  and  sell  their  votes  to  the  highest  bidder. 

Grafting  as  a  fine  art  also  came  in  with  the  civil  war, 
and  fitted  in  well  with  government  by  railroads,  by  trusts, 
by  monopolies,  and  combination  of  capital.  This  on  the 
seamy  side,  signifying  money;  but  worst  of  all  and  of 
most  sinister  influence  is  the  graft  on  industry,  which 
came  on  apace,  at  the  hand  of  the  exploiter  of  the 
workingman,  who  also  aspires  to  run  the  government. 

And  as  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
the  loftier  ideals  of  future  benefits  were  thrown  aside  by 
our  predecessors  for  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  for 
proximate  enjoyment,  so  now  during  this  first  half  of  the 
twentieth  century,  we  of  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  when 
duty  beckons  with  still  greater  insistence  turn  away, 
making  no  adequate  effort  to  take  our  proper  place  of 
power  and  influence  among  the  great  cities  of  the  world 
for  our  own  glory  and  the  good  of  mankind. 

Is  it  not  somewhat  late  in  the  day,  the  caviler  may 
ask,  to  begin  with  your  eugenics  and  race  betterment 
after  diluting  your  population  from  the  byways  of  Europe 
for  half  a  century?  And  this  in  the  futile  attempt  to  manu- 
facture high  grade  citizens  from  base  material,  imtil  you 
can  no  longer  claim  to  be  a  race  or  nation  at  all,  but 
rather  a   concretion   of   heterogeneous  humanity   where 

10 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

dissimilar  elements  are  loosely  united  by  weak  amalgam 
for  citizenship,  each  still  acting  for  himself  with  little 
love  of  countr}'  or  true  patriotism, — an  incongruous  mix- 
ture without  too  much  consistency  or  conscience. 

It  was  once  a  proud  boast,  that  of  American  citizen- 
ship; a  proud  boast  in  the  early  fifties  to  be  of  California; 
now,  politically,  we  are  one  with  the  Polish  Jew.  the 
Italian  fishwife,  and  the  wooly  negro  from  the  jungles  of 
Africa.  And  herein  is  hidden  a  fetish.  For  the  en- 
couragement of  faddists,  however,  we  might  say  that  a 
thousand  years  of  intelligent  effort  may  possibly  bring 
back  American  citizenship  to  where  it  was  a  hundred 
years  ago. 

The  truth  is  we  run  our  good  things  to  extremes,  to 
fads  and  fetishism.  We  make  a  fetish  of  money,  of 
education,  of  la1)or,  of  the  negro,  of  immigration  and 
assimilation  ;  the  exercise  of  our  prostituted  suffrage  is 
a  solemn  rite.  Commercial  honesty  is  regulated  by  the 
cash  register,  and  political  integrity  by  the  size  and 
quality  of  the  bril:)e.  The  negro  fetish  incarnates  a  false 
spirit,  so  proved  by  attempts  at  social  equalization.  The 
labor  fetish  is  equally  fallacious  in  attempting  the  im- 
possible in  politics  and  economics.  The  education  fetish 
out-swells  all  the  others,  even  to  bursting,  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  all  measures  where  one  class  of  voters  orders 
the  goods  which  another  class  is  to  pay  for. 

We  also  love  our  little  fictions,  even  going  so  far  in 
one  instance  as  to  stamp  the  lie  upon  our  coin.  In  God 
We  Trust,  whereas  do  we  not  know  that  it  is  in  the  dollar 
we  trust?  We  support  newspapers  with  their  too 
palpable  hypocrisies,  their  distorted  statements,  and 
their  interminable  braggadocio  and  vulgar  self-praise. 
Conscienceless  sheets,  bribed  by  German  influence,  show 
the  fact  plainly  enough  on  their  face,  and  carry  not  the 
conviction  they  imagine,  but  excite  only  disgust. 

11 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Xor  should  we  expect  profound  wisdom  from  the 
pacificists  who  fancy  they  can  stop  the  jug^^ernaut  car 
of  war  with  windy  words.  Xo  harm  to  pose  for  effect. 
good  friends,  or  to  advertise  your  inefficiency,  if  such  be 
your  purpose ;  but  unless  you  are  prepared  to  grant  each 
belligerent  his  own  terms,  your  efforts  are  wasted,  how- 
ever supported  they  may  be  by  a  shoal  of  learned  cranks, 
or  however  successful  you  may  have  been  making  cheap 
automobiles  or  running  a  sensational  church  or  a  super- 
fluous university. 

As  a  rule  an  efficient  man  of  affairs  makes  a  better 
executive  officer  than  a  college  professor  trained  within 
restrictive  lines ;  for  under  the  former,  while  obtaining 
the  highest  political  advantage,  economic  supremacy  is 
secured  as  well.  Pedagogv'.  ideality,  and  practical  politics 
do  not  assimilate.  Luck  takes  place  before  discernment. 
though  often  less  lasting.  The  higher  we  are  carried  by 
good  fortune  the  greater  is  sure  to  be  the  fall.  For 
learned  verbiage  commend  me  to  the  German  doctors  and 
professors  in  their  impotent  attempts  to  reconcile  the 
teachings  of  Christ  with  the  doings  of  the  devil. 

Education  is  a  good  thing  in  reason,  but  like  all  good 
things  is  subject  to  abuse.  Carried  to  excess  it  becomes 
a  fad  or  a  fetish,  doing  in  many  cases  more  harm  than 
good.  If  continued  on  present  lines  of  demagogism. 
wherein  loud-mouthed  extremists  pay  nothing  for  its 
support,  we  shall  presently  see  any  lazy  lout  taken  up 
and  fed  and  clothed  while  old  saws  are  pumped  into  him. 
afterward  to  be  set  up  in  business  and  a  dwelling  and 
wife  provided.  From  the  intellectually  over-fed  girl 
comes  the  super-woman  spoiling  something  better,  while 
boys  are  taken  from  work  they  are  fitted  for  and  con- 
signed to  failure.  Education  with  us  is  too  cheap,  and 
embellished  with  too  many  useless  accessories.  What 
costs  nothing  is  seldom   highly  prized.     Our  foremost 

12 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

men  are  usually  among  those  unspoiled  by  superfluous 
education. 

Furthermore,  it  stands  out  plainly  enough  to  those 
who  would  see  it  that  men  and  women  have  each  their 
sphere  of  usefulness,  and  in  which  they  excel,  for  so  was 
made  man,  male  and  female ;  it  is  as  much  out  of  place 
for  women  to  attempt  the  more  -virile  duties  of  men  as 
for  men  to  usurp  the  domestic  functions  of  women. 

Half  of  our  higher  educating  is  worse  than  wasted  in 
spoiling  inferior  material  for  the  more  useful  occupations 
in  life.  Injudicious  education  narrows  the  intellect, 
paralyzes  originality,  and  destro3"S  the  initiative.  Still 
more  senseless  is  giving  Japanese  free  education  with 
which  to  destroy  us  whenever  the  opportunity  offers. 
And  worst  of  all  is  to  permit  German  professors  in  the 
pay  of  American  universities  to  poison  the  minds  of  our 
youths  with  the  doctrine  of  Prussian  brutism.  militarism. 
and  kaiser  kultur.  Do  we  want  America  Germanized? 
Do  we  want  to  eliminate  from  our  curriculum  every  senti- 
ment of  right  and  wrong  and  teach  only  the  morality  of 
murder  ? 

The  sham  and  charlatanry  attending  our  elections, 
with  the  pretence  of  patriotism,  and  the  duty  of  every 
citizen  to  deposit  his  vote — cash  value  by  the  thousand 
fifty  cents  each ;  eligibility  determined  by  skin-tint ;  white 
or  black,  male  or  female,  admissible,  but  nothing  yel- 
low;— while  partly  true  is  none  the  less  diverting. 

Nor  is  it  good  polity  to  permit  the  jitney  nuisance  to 
menace  the  safety  of  a  city  full  of  people  and  ruin  legiti- 
mate transportation,  the  only  means  of  reaching  the 
suburbs  or  of  extending  the  city  limits. 

A  sum  equal  to  the  waste  of  the  present  congress  and 
the  public  funds  spent  in  measures  to  secure  the  reelection 
of  its  members  would  give  us  a  merchant  marine  and 
army  and  navy,  men  and  implements,  worthy  of  the  honor 

13 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

and  dignity  of  a  great  nation,  and  at  the  same  time  furnish 
profitable  employment  for  all  workers. 

The  United  States  is  quite  in  demand  just  now.  Labor 
wants  it,  socialists  want  it.  women  want  it,  the  Catholics 
want  it,  while  the  Jew,  the  Irishman,  and  the  notable 
cheap  automoljjle  maker  each  thinks  he  has  it  already. 
Mother  England  would  regulate  our  commerce,  while 
Germany  is  interested  in  watching  the  effects  of  bomb- 
play  on  neutrality.  The  administration  at  Washington 
would  like  to  retain  office  for  another  term,  for  a  dozen 
other  terms,  and  so  undertakes  to  straddle  several  fences 
at  one  time,  at  which  effort  it  cuts  a  sorrowful  figure. 

We  must  admit  that  the  prospect  for  immediate  im- 
provement in  San  h>ancisco  is  not  flattering.  However  it  may 
be  with  our  friends  at  the  east,  however  benefited  they  may  be 
by  the  war  in  Europe,  the  Panama  canal,  and  the  now  some- 
what obsolete  cry  of  peace  at  any  price,  however  guarded  and 
protected  shipping  interests  on  the  Atlantic  may  be,  we  in 
California  are  not  growing  stronger,  but  weaker,  both 
politically  and  economically.  ^\  e  cannot  have  true  and 
permanent  prosperity  with  an  administration  at  Washing- 
ton whose  primary  purpose  is  to  secure  its  continuance 
in  office,  whose  injudicious  measures  while  increasing  tax- 
ation destroy  industries,  and  sweep  commerce  from  the 
ocean  while  pandering  to  laborism  for  votes,  thus  throw- 
ing thousands  of  American  seamen  out  of  employment, 
and  giving  the  carrying  trade  of  the  Pacific  to  the  Jap- 
anese, who  hold  high  carnival  over  our  idiocy,  we  mean- 
while maintaining  the  Panama  canal  more  for  their  benefit 
than  for  our  own. 

Placing  in  high  office  rabid  labor  leaders  for  the  labor 
vote  is  not  the  best  way  to  establish  equital^le  relations 
between  labor  and  capital,  and  few  will  deny  that  a  more 
injudicious  measure  than  the  so-called  seamen's  bill  was 

14 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PAaFIC 

never  before  passed  by  a  legislative  body.— a  bill  at  once 
fatal  to  the  merchant  marine  while  seriously  crippling 
the  navy.  By  this  one  act  of  a  self-serving,  partisan  con- 
gress industrial  development  at  San  Francisco  bay  has 
been  set  back  for  many  years. 

Boomers  point  to  midcontinent  and  Atlantic  coast 
prosperity,  and  quote  railroads,  food  products,  and  war 
munitions,  which  is  all  very  well,  but  where  does  Cali- 
fornia come  in?  What  are  the  people  of  the  Pacific  coast 
doing  to  secure  some  of  the  advantages  from  the  wonder- 
ful canal,  and  the  so-helpful  war?  Nothing;  there  will 
be  the  overflow  from  the  east,  optimists  say,  which  will 
make  us  rich, —  tourists,  retired  capitalists  with  enter- 
prise all  sucked  out  of  them  making  homes  here,  and 
always  lovers  of  pleasure  in  plenty;  so  may  we  content 
ourselves  with  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  tables  of 
progressive  industry  over  the  way.  and  henceforth  write 
ourselves  The  happy  land  of  Eastern  Overflows. 

What  can  we  do?  Do !  Any  thing,  everything.  Abolish 
labor  intrigue;  drive  laborism  out  of  politics  as  Hiram 
Johnson  drove  railroads  out  of  politics:  relegate  the  old- 
time  commercial  traveller  back  to  the  people  that  sent 
him,  and  peace  propagandists  to  the  sewing-circle  and 
sunday-school ;  then  make  things  and  sell  them. 

Let  our  very  best  men  organize  for  establishing  and 
promoting  manufactures  on  the  broadest  conceivable 
basis,  yet  always  along  practical  and  commonsense  lines; 
establish  a  world  commercial  clearing  house,  and  invite 
all  nations  and  all  industries  to  keep  a  stock  of  their  goods 
here  for  sale ;  establish  also  a  commercial  training-school 
for  clerks  and  business  men  to  study  the  ways  of  foreign 
peoples  of  whom  they  would  make  customers,  their  wants 
and  necessities,  their  manners  and  methods,  their  weak- 
nesses and  their  strength,  their  proclivities  and  their 
languages ;  then  send  out,  not  a  boy  with  a  carpet-bag  of 

15 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

samples,  but  ship-loads  of  the  best  men  obtainable  for  the 
purpose. 

Seems  chimerical,  does  it?  But  it  is  not,  nor  half  so 
difficult  to  accomplish  as  the  magic  feat  of  your  so  superb 
and  successful  fair  which  to-day  is  and  tomorrow  is  cast  into 
the  oven. 

Following  the  age  of  gold  and  the  age  of  grain,  came 
to  California  fruit,  which  however  welcome  as  a  luxury 
does  not  meet  the  war-time  necessity  as  a  staple  food 
product,  and  with  land  at  $500.  an  acre  and  a  limited 
market  does  not  pay  the  producer.  To  restore  to  fertility 
worn-out  grain  lands,  after  a  half-century  of  non- 
rotated  crops,  is  troublesome  and  expens'ive ;  hence  for  the 
present  at  least  it  is  with  us  manufacturing  or  a  dulce  far 
niente  existence.  With  manufacturing,  commerce  will 
follow^  but  w^here  we  have  but  little  to  send  away  there 
can  be  but  little  commerce. 

Yet  further,  San  Francisco  can  attain  the  full  measure 
of  her  high  privileges  only  by  such  commerce  and  manu- 
factures as  can  successfully  compete  with  the  rest  of  the 
world,  while  the  builders  of  the  canal  can  derive  benefit 
and  not  actual  loss  from  building  it  only  by  a  merchant 
marine  which  can  successfully  compete  with  other  nations 
in  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world.  To  bar  cheap  foreign 
goods  by  high  duties,  as  some  would  have  it,  as  a  remedy 
for  the  exclusion  of  cheap  labor  is  as  illogical  and  absurd 
as  to  drive  American  ships  from  the  ocean  in  order  to 
benefit  American  seamen. 

The  bald  facts  remain  that  we  have  built  a  canal  for 
the  use  of  all  nations,  and  all  nations  are  profiting  by  the 
use  of  it,  largely  to  the  detriment  of  the  builders.  In  the 
main  traffic  between  the  Asiatic  shore  of  the  Pacific  and 
the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  California  is  left  out,  while 
Japan  derives  the  ben-efit  from  it.    Some  in  California  saw 

16 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

how  matters  were  tending  from  the  start ;  some  will  not 
see  them  as  they  are  even  now. 

England  and  Japan  should  be  grateful,  but  they  are 
not.  They  smile  at  our  government  as  pedagogic,  and  at 
our  men  of  afifairs  as  tamely  submissive ;  in  the  meantime 
taking  all  that  they  can  get  and  giving  for  it  as  little  as 
possible. 

Many  feared  a  slump  after  the  fair,  but  that  was  im- 
possible because  there  was  nothing  to  collapse,  neither 
agriculture  commerce  nor  manufactures.  The  fair  was 
magnificent,  and  accomplished  a  great  work  in  making 
better  known  our  country  and  climate.  All  honor  to  the 
men  who  conceived  it  and  carried  it  forward  to  a  success- 
ful issue.  Though  many  houses  in  the  city  remained 
empty  during  the  nine  months  of  its  continuance,  and 
business  was  dull,  the  hotels,  apartment  houses,  and 
certain  stores  reaped  a  rich  harvest.  But  these  were 
neither  natural  wealth  nor  economic  industry.  The  boasts 
about  building  and  bank  clearances  were  misleading,  and 
intended  to  mislead,  as  they  were  largely  incident  to  the 
exposition,  and  not  belonging  to  the  business  proper  of 
the  city.  We  should  hardly  consider  the  issuance  of  dis- 
torted statements  good  policy  under  any  circumstances. 

Frolic,  festivals,  and  fairs  are  not  business  but  play, 
though  play  sometimes  is  good  business.  But  if  all  work 
and  no  play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy,  all  play  and  no  work 
makes  a  travesty  of  business  and  a  fool  of  the  community. 

There  are  good  business  men  who  believe  in  booming, 
who  like  to  look  upon  the  bright  side,  who  will  even 
stretch  the  truth  a  little  to  make  the  bad  appear  better; 
there  are  others  who  prefer  looking  facts  squarely  in  the 
face,  and  meeting  the  situation  as  become  strong,  sensible 
men.  Nothing  is  gained,  either  in  business  or  journal- 
ism, by  hollow  buncombe. 

17 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACH'TC 

We  have  become  wealthy  and  great,  not  because  of  our 
government  but  in  spite  of  it ;  we  have  become  lax  in 
morals,  in  integrity,  and  in  patriotism,  not  because  of  our 
wealth  and  greatness,  but  because  of  civic  degeneration, 
because  of  our  flinging  away  our  most  precious  inherit- 
ance, American  citizenship  of  the  quality  bequeathed  to 
us  by  the  founders  of  the  republic. 

Looking  nearer  home  for  the  cause  of  our  industrial 
doldrums,  we  can  but  observe  that  when  a  body  of  in- 
telligent and  efficient  men,  prominent  citizens  of  no  mean 
city,  meet,  not  once  or  twice  but  several  times,  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  organizing  and  acting  for  the  promotion 
of  manufactures ;  when  in  all  their  free  and  thorough  dis- 
cussions, which  are  always  along  lines  of  experience  and 
discretion,  advantages  brought  forward  and  obstacles 
removed,  and  never  a  word  spoken  as  to  the  primary 
essential  in  all  economic  achievement,  and  never  anything 
accomplished,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  there  is  some- 
thing rotten  in  Denmark. 

For  these  are  of  our  city's  best,  equal  to  the  best  of 
any  city;  men  accustomed  to  meet  and  overcome  diffi- 
culties, not  to  give  way  before  them ;  who  could  watch 
the  flames  devour  their  city  without  a  whimper,  and  re- 
build it  in  proportions  of  beauty  and  utility  such  as  were 
never  dreamed  of  before ;  who  could  raise  for  a  world 
exposition  five  million  dollars  at  the  first  sitting,  to  be 
supplemented  by  twenty-five  millions  more,  and  carry 
forward  the  enterprise  with  such  wisdom  and  discretion, 
and  with  such  successful  results  as  to  command  the 
admiration  of  all  nations ;  and  this  in  the  face  of  Mexico's 
madness  and  Europe's  suicide;  who  could  subscribe  ofif 
hand  a  million  dollars  of  their  own  money  for  an  opera 
house  to  cover  a  city  block,  even  though  the  project  be 
defeated  by  a  puerile  mayor  for  labor  votes,  leaving  in 

18 


THE  FIRST  PORT  (3F  THE  PAQFIC 

the  civic  centre  a  ghastly  seal),  there  long  to  remain  as  a 
memento  of  official  charlatanry  and  imbecility. 

They  will  stand  np  before  the  scowling  Ni])ponese, 
scowling-  because  after  we  have  given  them  so  much  we 
do  not  give  them  more,  while  the  administration  at 
Washington  is  shaking  in  its  shoes  from  fear— fear  of 
damage  to  party,  to  the  high  ideals  of  pedagogic  purity, 
and  flinging  away  to  them  our  dearest  possession,  our 
chief  dependence  for  a  brilliant  future,  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pacific. 

Nor  are  they  indifferent  to  the  destiny  of  our  superb 
bay,  or  unappreciative  as  to  its  glorious  potentialities,  or 
blind  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  general  manufacturing- 
as  the  chief  factor  of  permanent  growth  and  prosperity. 

They  know,  as  history  tells  them,  that  a  centre  of 
industry — not  a  centre  of  art,  or  of  education,  or  of  wealth 
science  or  religion,  but  a  centre  of  industry  is  a  centre  of 
empire,  and  that  of  all  great  monuments  to  industrialism 
which  have  ever  arisen  by  the  hand  of  man  there  has 
never  been  one  whh  conditions  and  opportunities  at  the 
beginning  superior  to  those  of  their  own  city  and  bay. 
Sir  Gilbert  Parker  can  see  from  London  more  than  some 
of  us  can  see  here  on  the  ground.  He  says  that  the 
Panama  canal  will  soon  make  the  western  ocean  alive 
with  shipping  like  the  Atlantic,  our  world  exposition 
meanwhile  foreshadowing  the  magnificence  of  the  central 
port  of  San  Francisco,  where  all  this  human  activity  is 
ordained  by  geography  to  foregather  and  concentrate  its 
energy,  while  with  her  wonderful  situation  California 
may  soberly  aspire  to  the  queenship  of  the  Pacific  in  its 
noonday  maturity. 

They  know  too,  these  our  first  citizens,  as  every  one 
knows,  of  their  city's  embarrassment;  they  know  the 
cause  of  it,  and  feel  the  humiliation  and  disgrace  attend- 

mg  it,  and  notice  how  few  are  inclined  to  speak  of  it, 

19 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

that  a  strange  reticence  in  this  respect  i)ervades  the 
community.  They  know  this  yet  will  not  see,  or  seeing 
will  not  touch,  or  touching",  it  is  with  fingers  so  softly 
applied  as  to  soothe  rather  than  to  eradicate. 

They  know  very  well  that  without  free  labor,  without 
operatives  at  a  moderate  wage,  such  as  will  enable  us 
successfully  to  compete  with  others  we  can  have  no 
factories;  in  a  word  that  without  reasonably  cheap 
labor  we  cannot  engage  in  general  manufacturing,  which 
is  an  essential  of  our  progress  and  prosperity. 

They  fathom  fully  the  bugaboo  made  of  cheap  labor, 
and  the  arrant  nonsense  current  concerning  it.  They 
understand  perfectly  that  more  than  half  the  work  of  the 
world  is  low  grade,  and  must  be  done  by  humble  workers 
or  not  at  all,  the  higher-up  toilers  being  too  dainty  for  it ; 
that  reasonably  low  pay  to  inferior  laborers  is  as  great  a 
boon  as  high  pay  to  skilled  workmen,  as  to  the  low  grade 
worker  it  is  that  or  nothing,  and  all  that  stands  between 
him  and  starvation ;  and  that  without  cheap  labor  and 
cheap  laborers  millions  must  sufifer,  while  farm  and 
factory  work,  domestic  service  and  scores  of  useful  and 
beneficial  industries  must  to  a  certain  extent  be  given  up. 

They  are  neither  fools  nor  sentimentalists,  who  would 
run  their  business  as  benevolent  institutions.  They 
give  to  all  charities  liberally,  but  they  find  it  better  to 
make  the  money  first  by  practical  and  legitimate  ways, 
and  then  give  it  than  to  ruin  their  business  attempting 
impracticable  methods. 

Sentimentalism  as  applied  to  industrial  development  is 
out  of  place,  and  the  fallacies  attending  American  citizen- 
ship, assimilation,  and  cheap  labor,  must  be  dismissed  if 
anything  of  importance  is  to  be  accomplished. 

Even  were  industrialism  to  be  conducted  as  a  charity 
there  were  more  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  humble  worker, 
whose  low  wage  means  to  him  bread,  than  of  the  as- 

20 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

sertive  artisan  who  pays  his  exploiter  to  secure  for  him  a 
high  wage  and  short  days  which  give  him  more  time  and 
money  for  political  agitation  and  the  drinking  saloons. 

And  yet  these,  our  best  men,  seem  content  to  see  their 
highest  interests  sacrificed,  and  themselves  relegated  to 
lives  of  tame  respectability.  Writing  truthfully  and 
plainly  to  a  friend  as  to  the  situation  here  at  present  they 
would  say,  "The  greatest  opportunity  for  great  things 
ever  before  offered ;  but  first  the  place  needs  cleaning  up, 
politically,  morally,  and  industrially.  True,  we  can  give 
our  customers  now,  under  hall-mark  'Made  in  San 
Francisco',  a  guaranteed  article  produced  all  by  white 
labor  at  the  highest  wage  and  shortest  hours,  under  labor 
lords  who  take  their  accustomed  toll,  and  supply  the 
goods  at  a  price  but  little  higher  than  Germany  and  Japan 
ask  for  a  better  article.  No  poor  white  trash  paying 
nothing  to  the  labor  leaders,  and  nothing  yellow  per- 
mitted to  work  at  any  price,  no  matter  how  advantageous 
to  the  producer  or  to  the  commonwealth.  Government 
loose;  justice  facile;  morals  easy;  and  politics,  mostly  of 
the  Irish  and  Catholic  persuasion,  as  usual,  rotten." 

Some  good  citizens  are  less  ambitious,  less  enterpris- 
ing than  others,  or  have  the  city's  interest  less  at  heart. 
These  may  say  in  all  sincerity,  \A^hy  should  we  bother? 
we  are  rich,  we  are  inferior  to  none,  we  have  everything 
that  money  can  buy, — ah !  there  is  the  rub.  There  is  a 
nobler  life  that  is  not  satisfied  with  what  money  can  buy. 
In  truth,  the  greater  the  present  wealth,  the  less  satisfied 
the  intelligent  possessor  is  inclined  to  be  with  what  it 
will  buy. 

Romulus  and  Remus,  suckled  by  the  wolf,  glad  for  the 
nourishment  were  content.  The  half-naked  Venetians, 
paddling  in  Adriatic  mud,  had  all  that  money  could  buy, 
and  were  content,  but  not  so  the  dominating  doges  of 
the  imperial  city  that  uprose  from  that  mud.     London,  a 

21 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

city  of  cities,  as  our  city  should  be  including  all  the  bay 
shore,  was  content  as  a  Thames  embankment,  but  not  so 
her  destiny,  and  not  so  our  destiny.  Paris  was  gay  Paris 
as  Julius  Caesar  found  it,  a  collection  of  mud  huts  on 
the  banks  of  the  Seine,  and  it  will  always  be  gay  Paris 
as  our  city  will  always  be  gay  San  Francisco,  but  Clovis 
and  Flugh  Capet  were  not  satisfied  with  the  mud  huts 
however  happy  their  former  occupants  had  been  in  their 
possession. 

It  was  evident  from  the  beginning  that  unless  some 
special  effort  was  made  to  secure  practical  benefits  from 
the  Panama  canal  and  the  war  in  Europe  those  occur- 
rences would  prove  to  California  loss  rather  than  profit. 
It  is  not  the  mill  that  makes  the  water  run.  In  the 
absence  of  extensive  staple  agricultural  products  and  cor- 
responding commerce,  and  comparatively  little  accomp- 
lished toward  starting  up  general  manufacturing,  the  dis- 
advantages have  proved  greater  even  than  was  antici- 
pated. We  have  every  facility  for  making  anything  that 
can  be  made  elsewhere,  that  is  to  sa}^  cheap  raw  material, 
cheap  power,  cheap  transportation,  moderate  living  ex- 
penses,— every  thing  but  labor  at  a  fair  and  reasonable 
wage,  and  on  this  score  the  citv  is  held  up  by  the  pirates 
of  industry.  Germany  did  not  become  strong  and  great 
cringing  for  votes  or  through  subserviency  to  labor 
leaders. 

WHiile  the  labor  leaders  hea.p  curses  upon  capitalists 
for  having  capital,  they  call  upon  capitalists  to  provide 
for  them.  Capital  signifies  not  only  stored  labor,  but 
labor  and  economy.  Were  there  no  capitalists  and  no 
government  within  reach,  upon  whom  would  they  then 
issue  their  demands  for  support?  Already  two-thirds  of 
the  profits  of  industry  go  to  labor,  but  the  lal)i)rites  would 
like  the  other  third  also. 


22 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

The  main  inipedinient  to  progress  on  the  shores  of 
San  l^'rancisco  bay,  and  the  only  impediment,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  is  the  labor  sitnation,  the  capture  and  control  of 
labor  and  the  coercion  of  both  employer  and  employed 
by  exploiters  of  the  workingnian,  who  thus  hold  a  mon- 
opoly of  labor  and  manipulate  it  to  their  own  advantage. 
Because  of  these  industrial  parasites  preying  upon  the 
vital  interests  of  the  country  enterprise  is  crushed,  and 
scores  of  great  industries  are  driven  from  our  city  every 
year.  The  laborites  assume  that  employers  can  pay  any 
wage  they  choose,  and  that  it  is  their  duty,  and  the  duty 
of  government,  to  give  labor  employment  on  its  own 
terms.  They  teach  their  proteges  that  it  is  right  and 
proper  to  base  wages  on  the  needs  of  the  worker  instead 
of  following  the  laws  of  economics,  which  demand  that 
the  product  shall  not  cost  more  than  it  will  sell  for. 

Another  fallacy  is  that  the  man  with  a  family  is  entitled 
to  more  consideration  than  the  man  without  one,  when  in 
reality  the  former  should  be  punished  for  bringing  children 
into  the  world  without  any  provision  for  their  support.  For 
the  past  fifty  years  we  have  been  breeding  downward  instead 
of  upward,  and  we  are  just  now  beginning  to  see  the 
lamentable    result    and    take    tardy    action. 

Thoughtful  persons  view  with  concern  the  rapid  drift- 
ing of  the  governmient  into  the  hands  of  labor  leaders. 
Present  at  every  state  and  national  legislature  are  the 
exploiters  of  the  workingmen  active  in  the  defeat  of  every 
measure  that  does  not  give  them  some  unfair  advantage. 
They  also  employ  every  possible  method  to  warp  the 
judgment  of  courts  and  defeat  the  ends  of  justice. 

Opportunities  for  successful  manufacturing  are  as  open 
now  as  ever  they  were  but  for  the  pirates  of  industry, 
opportunities  likewise  for  the  imipecunious  to  labor  dili- 
gently, if  they  so  desire,  uniting  frugality  with  ability,  and 
become   capitalists,   as   thousands   have   done  before   them. 

23 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

No  laborer  ever  became  rich  or  great  serving  a  labor  leader, 
whose  teachings  are  based  on  imposition  and  fraud,  that 
is  in  giving  the  least  possible  return  for  the  most  possible 
pay, — lessons    in    enforced    inefficiency    and    thriftlessness. 

Organized  industry  under  the  regime  of  the  laborites 
is  organized  crime.  Threats  and  intimidation  are  the  argu- 
ments employed,  coercion  the  law,  and  dynamite  the  ulti- 
mate appeal.  Crime  is  the  atmosphere  in  which  it  lives 
and  moves ;  strikes  are  a  crime,  boycotts  are  a  crime, 
maiming  and  miurder  are  crimes.  The  many  trickeries 
and  Jesuitic  intrigues  for  fraudulent  purposes,  for  obtain- 
ing from  society  something  for  nptliiilg", — well,  call  jt 
laborism,   the   crime   of   the  vile   and   vulgar. 

To  tolerate  in  our  midst  a  labor  monopoly  is  a  disgrace 
to  our  government.  It  is  a  crime  to  put  to  inconvenience 
and  injury  an  entire  community  that  a  coterie  may  indulge 
in  coercion  and  revenge.  It  is  infamous  to  ruin  by  means  of 
the  boycott  a  respectable  and  law-abiding  tradesman,  offi- 
cers and  law  courts  abetting,  because  he  refuses  to  obey  the 
mandates  of  rapacious  labor  leaders.  It  is  a  reflection 
upon  the  honesty  and  integrity  of  any  government  that 
permits  a  clique  to  assume  its  functions  and  dominate  at 
will. 

And  if  any  workingman  cannot  work  here  without  a 
keeper  to  stir  up  strife  and  keep  industries  in  a  ferment, 
let  him  migrate  to  some  land  which  suits  him  better. 

Capital  imposes  upon  labor  as  opportunity  offers.  It 
has  always  been  so  and  always  will  be  so  until  man's  nature 
changes.  So  labor  gets  the  better  of  capital  whenever  it 
can,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  if 
left  to  the  devices  of  the  workingman's  exploiter.  It  is 
right  for  labor  to  defend  itself,  fairly  and  legitimately,  and 
organize  for  that  purpose ;  but  it  is  not  right  to  retaliate 
in  kind  upon  the  general  public,  or  resort  to  illegal  means 
for  the  enforcement  of  its  rules  and  policies. 

24 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

It  is  no  part  of  the  laborer's  business,  as  a  laborer, 
to  regulate  society  or  run  the  government,  any  more  than 
it  is  the  business  of  railroads  or  trusts  to  do  so.  These 
functions  belong  to  the  people  at  large,  and  not  to  any 
one  class.  Laborism  in  America  is  fast  becoming  like  mili- 
tarism in  Germany ;  we  may  be  very  sure  that  neither  will 
prove  pleasant  nor  profitable. 

What  are  the  labor  leaders  doing  for  workingmen? 
They  begin  by  weakening  the  intellect  in  playing  provi- 
dence, making  of  them  first  children  and  then  fools.  They 
give  to  those  who  pay  them  for  it  all  the  work  at  a  high  rate, 
to  the  destruction  of  enterprise,  leaving  those  who  do  not 
pay  without  work,  they  and  their  families  to  starve.  They 
dominate  industry,  permitting  no  boy  to  learn  a  trade  unless 
they  are  first  paid  for  it.  They  mollycoddle  the  poor 
toilers,  as  they  call  them,  into  puerility,  until  they  have  no 
more  manliness  or  independence  than  a  Mexican  peon. 

Organized  industry  is  gradually  undermining  society 
and  subverting  government.  It  is  a  pernicious  system, 
injurious  most  of  all  to  the  workingman,  before  whose 
mind  is  constantly  kept  by  his  exploiters  the  false  idea 
that  his  is  an  injured  class.  It  is  right  and  proper  for 
those  who  do  the  work  of  the  world  to  possess  the  world, 
but  the  daily-wage  man  is  not  the  only  one  that  works. 

It  is  not  that  we  need  fear  a  permanent  reign  of  labor, 
and  this  for  two  reasons.  First,  through  ignorance  and 
incompetency  the  policies  promoted  by  the  labor  leaders 
are  largely  suicidal,  such  as  in  the  end  will  bring  destruc- 
tion upon  themselves ;  and  secondly,  the  wonderful  rapidity 
with  which  machinery  is  invented  to  take  the  place  of  men 
will  limit  more  and  more  the  sphere  of  the  workingman 
and  destroy  the  occupation  of  his  overseer.  Delay,  however, 
at  the  present  time  in  our  great  industrial  development  is 
disastrous. 

25 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

We  will  give  to  the  earlier  champions  of  labor  their 
full  meed  of  praise ;  we  will  give  to  the  present  exploiters 
of  the  workingman  our  just  condemnation;  we  will  give 
to  any  community  which  for  any  reason  or  excuse  will 
submit  to  the  continued  impositions  of  any  coterie  or  class 
our   unequivocal    disapproval. 

It  was  a  grand  thing  to  do,  a  righteous  thing,  to  emanci- 
pate down-trodden  labor  from  the  tyranny  of  capital,  from 
the  impositions  of  nuercenary  and  evil-minded  men,  never 
again  to  be  so  enslaved.  It  is  not  grand  or  righteous  for 
liberated  labor  to  turn  on  its  benefactors  and  well-wishers, 
and  in  a  spirit  of  hate  and  revenge  put  to  the  sword  the 
comfort,  peace,  and  progress  of  whole  communities  of  which 
they  are  a  part,  and  on  which  they  are  still  dependent  for 
all   the   blessings   of   life. 

Nine  tenths  of  the  rich  men  in  America  today,  they  or 
their  fathers,  were  workingmen,  as  their  sons  may  be  after 
them,  and  they  were  neither  ruled  nor  exploited  by  any 
labor  leaders,  but  were  free,  self-respecting  American 
citizens,  who  elected  good  men  to  office,  and  managed 
their  afifairs  in  their  own  way. 

Nine  tenths  of  the  whiskey  shops,  hot-beds  of  debauch- 
ery and  demagogism,  are  directly  or  indirectly  kept  running 
by  laborism,  labor  leaders,  their  satellites  and  supporters. 

The  term  cheap  labor  as  applied  to  the  Chinese,  is  a 
bogey  which  has  fooled  the  United  States  up  to  the  limit 
for  a  half  century,  and  all  at  the  instigation  of  a  blatant 
Irishman  with  his  dinner  pail  and  dray  on  the  drifting 
sands  of  San  Francisco. 

With  cheap  labor  much  good  can  be  accomplished  which 
otherwise  must  remain  undone.  With  cheap  labor  a  forest 
can  be  cleared,  a  swamp  drained,  arid  lands  watered,  fac- 
tories and  mills  put  in  operation,  and  thousands  of  bene- 
ficient  enterprises  carried  on,  giving  food  and  raiment  to 
starving  millions  who  seek  not  luxuries  but  a  livelihood ;  at 

26 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACTFJC 

the  same  time  solving  many  problems,   such  as   high  cost 
of  living,  unemployment,  pauperism,  and  the  rest. 

The  policy  of  our  latter-day  labor  leaders  is  the  meanest 
and  most  selfish  of  any  thing  ever  before  invented,  and 
totally  opposed  to  their  own  interests  as  well  as  to  the 
interests  of  the  commonwealth,  and  to  the  purposes  of  the 
founders  of  the  republic,  which  was  the  greatest  good  to 
the  greatest  number  the  world  over. 

Labor  imagines  it  gets  the  better  of  its  employer  by 
securing  the  same  pay  for  fewer  hours,  but  the  fancied 
advantage  only  reacts  upon  the  laborer,  limiting  his  effi- 
ciency to  his  own  loss  in  the  end.  For  as  water  finds  its 
level,  so  the  price  of  labor  finds  itself  regulated,  not  by 
the  necessities  of  the  laborer  but  by  the  potential  price  of 
the  product.  Further  than  this  the  workingman  should 
know  that  money  obtained  by  indirect  methods  at  the  hand 
of  fraudulent  overseers,  howsoever  much  food  for  the  mind 
and  generous  living  it  will  buy,  will  never  make  for  im- 
proved citizenship. 

More  than  half  the  work  of  the  world  is  low  grade, 
as  has  been  said,  and  is  and  ought  to  be  done  by  cheap 
labor.  More  than  half  the  farm  and  factory  work  is 
unskilled  labor,  which  more  than  half  the  world  would  be 
glad  to  get  at  a  moderate  wage,  yet  the  laborites  forbid 
them,  preferring  to  see  them  starve.  Let  cheap  labor  be 
given  to  the  cheap  laborers  among  us  until  all  are  em- 
ployed; then  as  more  are  required  bring  in  the  best  obtain- 
able regardless  of  color  or  creed. 

We  need  the  Chinese  as  servants,  not  as  masters;  as 
subjects,  not  as  rulers ;  as  humble  workers  at  humble  work, 
not  as  arrogant  labor  lords  to  corner  industry,  whip  capital, 
and  ruin  all  honest  tradesmen  who  dare  to  manage  their 
business  in  their  own  way. 

We  do  not  want  Asiatics  to  come  in  unlimited  numbers, 
or  to  own  land  or  settle  themselves  here.    We  do  not  want 

27 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

their  children  born  here  to  become  citizens,  any  more  than 
we  want  apes  born  here  to  become  citizens.  Let  those  come 
only  for  whom  we  have  work,  which,  when  finished,  let 
them  be  returned  to  their  homes.  Europe  is  fast  killing  off 
her  surplus,  and  it  is  no  time  for  America  to  shackle  in- 
dustry or  permit  exploiters  to  manacle  cheap  labor. 

By  cheap  labor  I  do  not  mean  a  starvation  wage,  but 
a  wage  such  as  is  paid  elsewhere,  and  such  as  will  enable 
us  to  compete  with  mianufactures  elsewhere.  To  fix  a  mini- 
mum wage  is  to  deprive  thousands  of  laborers  of  any  wage 
at  all,  that  others  who  pay  the  exploiter  may  have  what 
work  there  is  at  a  higher  wage,  and  at  the  same  time 
stop  the  wheels  of  industry.  The  inexorable  law  of  supply 
and  demand  cannot  be  conventionally  ignored.  Manufact- 
urers cannot  be  compelled  by  law  to  employ  operatives 
at  a  higher  wage  than  the  value  of  the  product  will  justify, 
or  in  other  words  to  do  business  at  a  loss.  They  can  decline 
business  when  it  does  not  pay,  which  only  increases  the 
evil,  adding  distress  to  the  workers.  Unemployment  is 
worse  than  a  low  wage.  Successful  business  cannot  be 
conducted  as  a  charity ;  even  were  it  so,  it  is  oftener  charity 
to  give  the  low  grade  worker  his  low  wage  than  the  high 
grade  worker  his  high  wage. 

The  laborer  needs  protection  from  the  labor  leader  far 
more  than  from  his  employer.  Unemployment  exists  mainly 
because  of  the  method  of  laborism,  which  gives  all  the  work 
to  half  of  the  workers  at  an  e:^orbitant  wage,  forbidding 
a  low  wage  altogether.  The  first  step  toward  solving  the 
problem  of  the  unemployed  is  to  give  them  their  fair  share 
of  the  work. 

Labor  monopoly  is  worse  than  cooperative  or  coriX)rate 
monopoly,  as  the  former  is  manipulated  by  irresponsible 
and  unscrupulous  persons,  with  nothing  to  lose  and  every- 
thing to  gain,  while  the  latter  has  at  least  soutc  money  or 
property  responsibility  and  therefore  runs  the  risk  of  loss. 

28 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Cheap  labor  is  as  essential  to  general  industry  as  water 
is  to  health.  To  deride  cheap  labor  and  moderate  though 
healthful  living  is  the  most  senseless  and  suicidal  of  policies. 
As  well  deride  mule  or  machine  labor,  cheap  power,  cheap 
food,  cheap  raw  material ;  as  well  denounce  at  once  all  the 
requirements  of  competitive  industry  and  give  up  all 
attempts  at  general  manufacturing.  And  yet  more  absurd  is 
it  to  set  up  the  inoffensive,  plodding  Chinaman  as  a  menace 
to  American  interests  while  harboring  Irish  agitators,  Italian 
anarchists,  Russian  nihilists,  and  German  dynamiters  and 
bomb-planters. 

Some  laborers  are  worth  twice  as  much  as  others,  but 
all  who  pay  the  exploiter  must  be  paid  alike  by  the  employer. 
Some  laborers  are  too  self-respecting  to  submit  to  the  com- 
mands of  a  keeper;  these  must  be  punished  and  not  per- 
mitted to  work  at  all.  Some  mechanics  can  work  twice 
as  fast  as  others,  but  the  fast  brick-layers  must  not  lay  a 
brick  more  than  the  slowest  is  able  to  do.  The  whole  organ- 
ization and  arrangement  is  placing  a  premium  on  incom- 
petency and  fraud. 

Can  we  not  have  cheap  labor  without  abusing  it?  And 
because  heartless  employers  have  abused  it  must  we  be 
thereby  forever  deprived  of  this  primary  essential  to  our 
progress?  We  cannot  have  true  and  permanent  prosperity 
so  long  as  our  prominent  business  men  permit  the  exploiters 
of  labor  to  run  their  business,  rule  the  courts,  and  fill  the 
public  offices  with  their  tools.  Labor  leaders  are  bad  enough 
any  where,  but  they  are  worse  in_San  Franrisro  than  in  most 
other  places,  far  worse  than  at  San  Diego,  Los  Angeles, 
or  Seattle. 

Tbere  was  no  cause,  there  is  no  excuse  for  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Chinese.  Of  all  the  aliens  that  ever  came  to 
America  they  are  the  least  objectionable  and  the  most  use- 
ful.    Their  good  qualities  are  imputed  to  them  as  faults; 

29 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

their  industry  is  slavishness ;  their  thrift,  niggardhness ; 
their  economy,  parsimony.  They  were  timid,  our  ways 
being  strange  to  them ;  they  were  inoffensive,  unretahative 
before  insult  and  injury,  therefore  mean  and  cowardly. 

It  is  true  that  they  herded  in  places  apart,  as  did  the 
sewage  of  American  citizenship,  the  Russians.  Austrians, 
Scandinavians.  Portuguese,  Turks,  Greeks,  Finns,  and 
others  from  the  slums  of  Europe,  where  filth  and  vice  were 
far  greater  than  in  the  unique  Chinatowns  of  California. 
And  better  far  thus  to  herd  than  to  scatter  themselves 
throughout  white  residence  districts,  as  the  Japanese  delight 
in  doing,  to  the  disgust  of  the  inhabitants  and  the  ruination 
of  their  property  and  homes.  We  will  work  with  the 
Asiatics,  but  we  will  not  eat  with  them,  nor  sleep  with 
them. 

It  is  true  that  they  did  not  assimilate,  did  not  try  to 
proselyte  or  win  disciples  for  Buddha,  did  not  trouble  our 
wives  and  daughters,  did  not  love  to  agitate,  did  not  demand 
alleged  rights  under  treaties,  did  not  care  to  meddle  in  our 
politics,  or  run  the  government ;  better  for  us  had  there 
been  more  like  them   in  these   respects. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  early  mining  days  some  of  them 
smoked  opium,  though  never  to  the  extent  alleged,  but 
for  which  idiosyncrasy  all  the  same  we  damned  them  daily. 
Then  of  their  own  accord  they  gave  it  up  almost  entirely, 
seeing  the  ill  effects  of  it  as  their  rulers  had  seen  long- 
before,  fighting  its  introduction  into  their  country;  so  that 
in  the  chief  cities  of  Christendom  more  of  the  stuff  was 
used  by  Europeans  than  by  Asiatics,  while  in  California 
with  the  Cliinese  element  eliminated  the  im])ortation  of  the 
divine  drug  was  greater  than  ever.  Few  Asiatics  at  present 
are  enslaved  by  its  use,  far  less,  with  all  our  Keeley  cures, 
than  there  are  white  men  wrecked  by  rum. 

It  was  in  1840  that  Great  P)ritain  perpetrated  that  in- 
famous act  of  forcing  opium  upon  the  Chinese,  notwith- 

30 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

standing  the  emperor's  edict  of  1796  prohibiting  its  imix)rta- 
tion,  and  the  long  and  strenuous  efforts  of  the  imperial 
government  to  keep  away  the  poison  which  they  feared 
and  so  heartily  detested.  As  for  intemperance,  with  its 
loathsome  exhibitions,  I  have  lived  an  eye-witness  of  their 
habits  in  California  for  over  half  a  century,  and  I  have 
never  seen  a  Chinaman  drunk  on  the  street,  or  in  any  way 
disorderly,  or  standing  at  the  bar  of  a  drinking  saloon,  where 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Americanized  toilers  congre- 
gate daily  for  intellectual  improvement  and  generous  living. 
I  have  never  seen  a  Chinaman  begging,  any  where  or  in 
any  way.  while  one  constantly  encounters  on  the  street 
lusty  white  men  asking  for  money  with  which  to  buy 
food,  thus  in  these  and  other  ways  falling  below  in  man- 
liness and  decency  the  despised  Asiatic  of  the  cheaper 
wage. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  Chinese  are  filthy  in  their  habits, 
inefficient  in  their  work,  or  untrustworthy.  As  cooks, 
domestic  servants,  launderers,  and  for  orchard  and  vege- 
table garden  work,  they  have  no  superior.  They  are  dili- 
g;eiit,  respectful  J  honest,  and  reliable,  which  can  be  truth- 
fully  said  of  but  few  others. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  Chinese  take  work  from  better 
men ;  there  are  no  better  men  for  their  work.  The  assump- 
tion of  the  Irish  that  in  the  United  States  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion they  should  take  precedence  is  somewhat  ludicrous ; 
the  Chinese  were  a  cultured  nation  while  yet  the  inhabitants 
of  the  emerald  isle  were  anthropophagi.  Nor  was  this 
republic  founded  especially  for  the  Celts,  to  make  places 
for  them  as  policemen,  labor  leaders,  and  drinking-shop 
politicians.  If  by  better  men  the  average  mechanic  was 
meant,  still  the  assertion  is  not  true,  for  the  average 
mechanic  would  not  attempt  the  humbler  work  of  the 
Asiatic  at  any  price. 

31 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

We  cannot  reasonably  say  that  this  man  is  more  worthy 
of  our  consideration  than  the  other,  as  we  declare  that  all 
are  born  free  and  equal.  There  are  four  hundred  millions 
who  prefer  Chinese  paganism  to  German  Christianity ; 
examine  the  record  and  you  will  find  that  the  former  live 
nearer  the  teaching-s  of  Christ  than  the  latter. 

The  Irishman  would  doubtless  claim  superiority  over 
the  Chinaman,  but  it  would  be  difficult  for  him  to  prove  it. 
He  is  a  better  agitator,  dissensionist,  and  demagogue,  but 
far  inferior  as  house  servant,  fruit-grower,  or  factory  oper- 
ative, and  as  between  the  two  I  prefer  in  my  family  a  good 
cook  to  an  agitator.  As  for  government  under  Irish  regime, 
nothing  could  be  worse,  unless  it  were  militaristic  rule 
under  the  Germans. 

It  is  not  true  that  there  was  danger  at  any  time  that 
the  Chinese  would  swarm  over  and  fill  this  country  like 
locusts,  as  was  said.  The  Japanese  might  do  this  but  not 
the  Chinese.  First,  it  is  against  their  nature  and  tradi- 
tions ;  second,  the  trip  was  too  expensive,  frequently  in- 
volving the  sale  or  mortgage  of  wife  and  children ;  third, 
they  perforce  must  return ;  even  if  dead  the  little  body 
must  be  wrapped  in  a  well-spiced  bundle  and  sent  back 
to  China ;  fourth,  the  thing  was  tried  and  proved  that 
when  wages  fell  below  a  certain  mark  the  tide  turned 
and  there  were  more  returning  than  coming. 

Long  before  the  Turanian  founding  of  the  Chinese 
nation  in  the  Yellow  River  valley,  and  while  western 
Europe  was  inhabited  only  by  half-naked  savages,  Cathay 
cradled  a  sleepy  civilization  but  little  inferior  to  that  of 
Egypt.  The  people  were  rooted  to  their  homes  in  this 
life,  and  their  souls  guarded  by  their  gods  in  the  life  to 
come.  Joss  has  them  ever  in  his  safe  keeping.  There 
was  never  any  danger  of  the  Chinese  leaving  China,  they 
or  their  remains,  never  to  return. 

32 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

They  came  hither  upon  the  formal  invitation  of  promi- 
nent San  Francisco  citizens  made  in  1849  through  a  dele- 
gation from  China,  assured  of  a  friendly  reception  and  fair 
treatment.  They  were  met  with  derision  and  treated  with 
contumely.  In  the  mines  their  camps  were  raided ;  in  the 
legislature  they  were  illegally  taxed ;  in  the  towns  they 
were  stoned  by  the  boys,  who  pulled  them  about  by  their 
queue,  their  elders  smiling  approval.  Their  entire  sojourn 
in  this  land  of  liberty  and  equality  would  show  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  injustice  and  cruelty  on  the  part  of  the 
American  people  and  government. 

Treaties  made  in  1844  and  subsequently  were  faith- 
fully kept  by  them  but  were  broken  at  pleasure  by  the 
United  .States.  It  is  so  easy  to  undo  the  philanthropic  with 
a  weaker  nation!  When  in  1784  the  Empress  of  China,  the 
first  American  vessel  to  visit  the  celestial  shore,  entered 
the  port  of  Canton,  captain  and  supercargo  were  received 
in  the  most  friendly  manner,  as  were  the  many  American 
ships  that  followed,  though  not  long  before  this  strangers 
had  been  driven  ruthlessly  away.  They  called  the  Ameri- 
cans "the  new  people",  as  distinguished  from  the  English 
from  whom  the  United  States  had  so  lately  become  inde- 
pendent. Foreigners  at  that  time  were  not  allowed  to 
penetrate  the  interior;  they  were  called  barbarians,  and 
regarded  by  the  Chinese  as  far  less  civilized  than  them- 
selves. 

During  our  civil  war,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Bur- 
lingame,  China  closed  her  ports  to  the  confederate  cruiser 
Alabama,  or  any  other  war  vessel  of  the  rebels,  thus 
greatly  aiding  our  cause.  Choosing  Burlingame  as  their 
envoy  abroad  shows  how  ready  they  were  to  Amer- 
icanize their  country. 

Commodore  Dewey  did  not  disdain  Chinese  service  at 
Manila  bay,  but  when  he  reached  New  York  the  heathen 
were  not  allowed  to  land.    They  might  fight  our  battles 

33 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

but  must  not  place  foot  upon  our  soil  without  some 
celestial  Perry  at  hand  to  force  them  entrance. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  from  first  to  last  China  has 
treated  us  with  courtesy  and  fairness,  which  we  have  re- 
turned with  injustice  and  insult. 

The  origin  and  agency  of  Chinese  expulsion  show  in 
true  however  unfavorable  light  the  quality  of  our  some- 
what demoralized  republicanism,  of  the  intelligence, 
honesty,  integrity,  humanity,  and  justice  of  which  we 
make  boast,  as  administered  by  politicians,  newspapers, 
and  office-holders  all  along  the  line  u])  to  the  highest 
positions. 

Obsessed  by  evil  inspiration,  an  Irish  drayman  in 
the  San  Francisco  dunes  mounted  a  box  and  shouted 
"The  Chinese  must  go !"  Seeing  spoils  in  it,  demagogues, 
supported  by  the  public  press,  took  up  the  cry,  which 
reverberated  through  the  city,  through  the  state,  until 
crossing  the  continent  it  reached  congress,  where  it  was 
safely  preserved  in  the  spoils-box  of  electioneering  assets. 

Wherefore  at  the  instigation  of  the  worst  element  in 
our  country  we  adopt  the  pagan  policy  which  we  so  lately 
shouted  down  at  the  door  of  pagan  Asia. 

All  honor  to  Dennis!  the  grandest  Irishman  since  St. 
Patrick ;  Dennis  with  his  dinner  pail  and  dray  upon  the 
classic  sands  of  Market  street ;  he  shook  with  his  voice 
the  foundations  of  the  republic,  so  firmly  established  by 
Hamilton,  and  Jefferson,  and  Washington,  stirring  to 
frenzy  the  politicians,  from  policeman  to  president,  be- 
cause of  pap  and  patronage  ! 

The  Chinaman  had  no  cham])ion  ;  his  wrongs  were 
never  recited  ;  the  lies  that  were  told  of  him  fell  on  list- 
less ears  and  were  never  refuted.  So  that  now  it  is  the 
vague  but  general  iiupression  throughout  the  land  that 
the  Chinese  are  an  undesirable  factor  in  the  economic 
interests  of  the  country. 

34 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Of  course  the  solons  at  the  capital  knew,  the  president 
knew,  all  their  henchmen  and  whippers-in  knew  well 
enough  the  true  and  only  cause  of  his  ofYending;  this 
celestial  had  no  vote. 

Though  respectal)le  and  responsible,  his  was  an  ofif 
color.  For  so  discriminating  had  become  our  perceptions 
in  passing  upon  material  fit  for  citizenship  that  we  could 
determine  it  by  the  tint  of  the  skin  ;  anything  white  or 
black  would  do,  but  yellow  was  taboo. 

Yet  there  was  a  distinction  even  in  the  yellow ;  the 
Japanese,  a  far  worse  element  than  the  Chinese,  were  per- 
mitted to  enter  freely  long  after  the  latter  had  been  pro- 
hibited. There  was,  alas!  no  Dennis  on  the  sand-hills 
then  to  raise  the  cry,  The  Japanese  nmst  go! 

Here  is  another  of  those  lost  opportunities  which  fate 
held  out  to  the  makers  of  this  republic,  an  opportunity  to 
employ  our  young  wisdom  in  resuscitating  and  redeeming 
for  progressive  humanity  the  oldest  and  largest  of  earth's 
nations,  an  opportunity  that  any  European  power  would 
have  most  effectually  embraced.  If  the  chance  had  been 
Germany's,  for  example,  there  would  now  be  no  war  in 
Europe,  however  doleful  the  consequences  might  be  to 
China. 

Lost  through  our  lovers  of  votes,  the  greatest  oppor- 
tunity of  all  for  doing  good,  for  doing  the  greatest  good 
to  ourselves  and  to  others,  to  an  unwieldy  mass  of  par- 
alyzed humanity  four  times  the  present  population  of  the 
United  States  crowded  into  an  area  two  thirds  as  large, — 
one-fourth  of  all  the  people  in  the  world,  and  of  a  nature 
so  apathetic  that  all  the  proddings  of  little  Japan  have 
thus  far  failed  to  prick  them  into  manliness. 

We  had  simply  to  remember  our  precept  that  these 
were  men,  not  apes,  equal  to  us  in  creation,  equal  to  anv 
in  regard  to  our  obligations ;  or  if  to  our  diluted  citizen- 
ship this  sentiment  had  lost  force,  one  can  but  consider 

35 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

how  easily  our  sphere  of  influence  might  have  been 
extended  over  all  China,  and  what  that  influence  would 
be  worth  to  us,  at  present  in  money,  and  later  in  power, — 
when  the  strength  of  the  nation  becomes  centralized, 
and  disciplined  under  competent  leadership  to  meet  the 
great  issues  and  conflicts  of  the  world. 

Assimilation,  amalgamation,  as  a  scheme  at  once  be- 
neficent and  profitable  has  not  proved  always  and  alto- 
gether befitting.  In  a  new  country  with  vast  areas  of 
untenanted  lands,  a  good  quality  of  incomers  to  form 
partnership  with  the  original  stock,  under  well  considered 
restrictions,  might  have  proved  propitious ;  but  as  a  dump- 
ing-ground for  the  refuse  of  eft'ete  nations  the  inter- 
mixture is  fatal  to  the  welfare  of  a  progressive  people. 

In  our  own  case  the  custom  as  applied  during  the  last 
half-century  has  destroyed  representative  democracy  as 
originally  existing,  and  blotted  out  any  possibility  of  a 
pure  Anglo-American  race  in  the  states  united  by  the 
founders  of  the  republic. 

The  doctrine  of  assimilation  sounded  pleasantly  in 
Puritan  ears.  It  was  beautiful  in  theory,  but  theories 
and  ideals  are  not  everlasting  in  practice.  Up  to  a  certain 
point  the  free  admission  of  aliens  was  profitable,  but 
with  the  incoming  age  of  graft  they  only  added  to  the 
general  corruption.  A  factory  for  turning  out  ready- 
made  citizens,  where  native  land  and  love  of  country  are 
lacking,  does  not  show  the  best  results. 

Of  every  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  United  States, 
351 — they  or  their  parents — are  foreign  born;  107  are 
negroes;  while  less  than  half  of  the  remainder  are 
descendants  of  the  four  million  colonists  of  1790.  In 
Massachusetts,  the  keystone  of  Yankeedom,  there  were 
in  1910,  117,000  Russians,  89,000  Italians,  48,000  Scandi- 
navians, 35,000  Austrians,  30,000  Germans.  26,000  Portu- 
guese,  16,000  Turks,   11,000  Greeks,   10,000  Finns,   with 

36 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

100,000  aliens  still  coming  in  every  year.  Of  whites  of 
native  parentage  in  New  York  city  there  are  only  19.3 
per  cent,  and  in  Chicago  20.4  per  cent.  Of  the  13,000,000 
aliens  arriving  since  1900,  over  half  of  them  were 
Catholics. 

And  now  that  every  able  bodied  man  in  Europe  is 
required  for  the  butcher,  future  immigration  from  that 
quarter  is  not  likely  to  improve  in  quality. 

There  are  communities  in  the  south  where  three 
fourths  of  the  population  are  negroes,  and  there  are 
midcontinent  communities  of  alien  dolts,  many  of  whom 
cannot  speak  the  English  language,  and  who  have  as 
proper  conception  of  American  institutions  and  ideals  as 
so  many  mules,  yet  all  fit  and  proper  for  American 
citizenship. 

Obviously  another  of  our  lost  opportunities ;  for,  as 
before  intimated,  had  we  economized  our  lands  and 
limited  our  citizenship  we  might  now  present  in  place  of 
this  unhappy  hybridism  the  finest  race  on  earth,  with 
public  wealth  enough  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment to  the  end  of  time. 

Of  a  truth  we  ought  not  to  curse  the  Chinaman  for 
declining  American  citizenship  but  rather  to  bless  him,  to 
bless  his  coppery  skin,  his  eyes  aslant  and  his  worshipful 
pigtail ;  his  clattering  feet,  and  swinging  market  basket, 
and  his  sanctimonious  Joss  before  whom  he  prays  to  his 
thirty  thousand  devils.  Let  us  thank  him  that  he  does 
not  envy  our  Irish  rulers,  does  not  want  to  be  congress- 
man, or  run  labor  unions,  or  bribe  supervisors,  or  hold 
nihilistic  seances,  but  just  to  do  faithful,  humble  work 
and  take  his  small  earnings  back  to  China  to  make  happy 
the  diminutive  slave-wife  and  little  demijohns  forever 
after ;  or  should  fateful  death  overtake  him  to  have  his 
little  bundle  of  aromatic  bones  returned  over-sea  to  their 
original  dust,  carefully  guarded  for  the  Stygian  journey, 

37 

2601:^0 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

lest  peradventure  there  should  set  in  amalgamation  with 
those  of  the  Christian  devils. 

In  the  early  gold-diggings  days,  with  the  criminal 
element  from  every  nation  v/e  absorbed  England's  Aus- 
tralian convicts,  with  such  of  Russia's  Siberian  population 
as  could  make  their  escape,  amalgamating  these  with  the 
rest,  all  of  them  who  were  not  hanged  or  driven  away  by 
the  vigilance  committee.  And  never  a  voice  from  Ireland 
on  the  classic  sand-hills,  "The  S3'dney  ducks  must  go!" 

Assimilation !  Something  of  a  fiasco  after  all  is  it  not? 
We  begin  by  assimilating  and  end  by  being  assimilated. 
We  begin  by  absorbing  low-grade  people  from  Europe 
and  end  in  being  absorbed  by  them.  We  pass  out  freely 
our  naturalization  papers  until  we  bring  upon  ourselves 
denationalization. 

There  is  no  longer  an  Anglo-American  republic;  the 
race  of  the  founders  is  fast  disappearing,  and  we  have 
only  to  make  the  best  of  the  heterogeneous  humanity 
that  has  taken  its  place. 

Assimilation,  how  glorious!  Imported  citizens, 
patriots,  lovers  of  country,  plentiful  and  cheap.  Before 
the  present  inhuman  conflict  brought  out  in  bloody  relief 
the  true  mind  and  character  of  the  Teutonic  race  we 
regarded  German  immigrants  as  among  the  best  material 
for  American  citizenship,  and  we  must  still  differentiate 
between  the  loyal  Americanized  Germans  who,  they  or 
their  ancestors,  were  among  the  builders  of  the  nation, 
and  some  of  the  later  hyphenates  who  are  false  to  their 
sworn  allegiance,  traitors  to  the  land  of  their  adoption, 
bomb-planters  and  incendiaries,  worthy  disciples  of  the 
kaiser. 

We  may  further  note  the  similarity  in  the  methods 
of  the  murderous  German  sympathizers  and  the  murder- 
ous  labor  leaders   in   attaining  their   ends. 

38 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

There  are  Germans  who  would  fight  for  the  land  of 
their  adoption,  just  as  Anglo-Americans  would  fight 
England  again  if  necessary ;  there  are  many  Germans 
among  the  later  hyphenated  who  would  not.  As  to  the 
Germans  who  have  developed  under  militarism  and  kaiser 
kultur,  they  are  of  a  different  order  of  humanity  from 
anything  elsewhere  existing.  This  they  themselves  claim, 
and  we  willingly  concede  it.  The  kaiser  is  their  god,  and 
a  very  bad  god  too;  as  unscrupulous  as  a  medieval  rol)ber 
baron,  and  as  blood-thirsty  as  a  pirate  of  the  Spanish 
main;  their  ideals  are  hellish,  their  acts  the  worst  con- 
ceivable by  man.  They  love  murder  for  murder's  sake, 
cruelty  is  a  pastime  and  pleasure,  and  terrorism  the  first 
principle  of  their  war  tactics. 

And  yet  Berlin  journalists  wonder  why  Germans  are 
not  loved  !  The  question  itself  shows  a  dementia,  shows  a 
total  absence  of  any  moral  sense.  The  Germans  are  a 
race  apart,  just  as  hyenas  are  a  class  by  themselves,  and 
might  as  well  wonder  why  they  are  not  loved.  To  tell 
the  Germans  why  they  are  not  loved,  why  they  are  hated 
and  abhorred  by  all  nations  is  not  a  difficult  task.  Does 
civilized  humanit}'^  love  savage  beasts  or  poisonous  rep- 
tiles, whether  in  the  form  of  divine  kaiser  or  unified 
professor?  Do  men  of  honor  love  lies  and  trickery,  fore- 
sworn faith  and  broken  promises?  Do  men  of  morals 
love  the  ethics  of  brute  force,  void  of  conscience,  void 
of  humanity,  void  of  any  sense  of  right  and  wrong? 
Look  at  Belgium,  Oh  tearful  Teutons !  and  consider  the 
Lusitania;  consider  your  butcheries  of  defenceless  men 
women  and  children,  your  rapes  and  robberies,  your 
wanton  cruelty  and  injustice  at  every  hand,  then  a.sk  not 
why  all  nations  hate  Germany !  And  how  about  entering 
a  neutral  nation,  and  through  a  contemptible  system  of 
espionage,  lx)ml)-planting.  and  assassination  yield  up  your 
last  scrap  of  tattered  honor? 

39 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Learned  doctors  and  professors,  whom  we  have 
hitherto  accredited  with  deep  thought  and  sound  logic, 
are  apparently  as  enslaved  by  their  Teutonic  supersti- 
tions as  the  ignorant  soldier  in  the  trenches  fighting  for 
he  knows  not  what.  Or  is  it  that  they  must  hold  with 
their  kaiser  or  cease  to  be  Germans  and  quit  the  country? 
At  all  events,  whatever  it  is,  whether  stupidity  or  hypoc- 
risy, it  is  not  a  proper  element  of  progress,  nor  yet  a 
fertile  soil  in  which  to  plant  the  true  beautiful  and  good. 

It  is  not  alone  the  cruelty,  brutality,  and  injustice  of 
the  Germans  that  shock  the  civilized  world,  but  that  the 
learning  and  refinement  of  thi^  great  nation  should  be 
given  up.  to  defend,  or  even  to  praise  such  fiendishness 
shows  an  astounding  depravity  such  as  the.  world  never 
could  have  imagined  and  can  never  forget. 

Germany,  these  wiseacres  are  wont  to  say,  has  of  late 
contributed  more  than  any  other  nation  to  the  progress 
and  enlightenment  of  the  world.  Whether  this  be  true 
or  not  they  might  correctly  add  that  she  has  also  con- 
tributed more  to  the  villainies  and  brutalities  of  the  world 
than  were  ever  dreamed  of  as  possible  since  Christ  was 
here  preaching  peace.  We  can  well  spare  Germany  from 
the  family  of  nations,  with  all  the  good  she  has  done,  if 
she  will  take  with  her  the  wrongs  she  has  committed 
against  the  souls  as  well  as  the  bodies  of  men. 

The  truth  is  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  hyphenated 
in  America,  Germans  and  others,  never  have  really  amal- 
gamated and  never  will,  the  amalgam  adhering  only  dur- 
ing fair  weather  or  when  profitable. 

Time  will  test  further  the  loyalty  of  Americanized 
aliens.  As  to  the  dependence  which  may  be  placed  upon 
union  lalior,  and  the  devotion  of  its  members  to  the 
country  they  live  in  and  from  which  they  derive  sup])ort, 
we  have  an  example  in  England,  where  they  not  only 
refuse  to  fight,  but  resort  to  strikes. for  less  work  and 

40 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

more  pay,  thus  crippling  British  arms  in  the  nation's  dire 
extremity.  Again,  to  avoid  conscription  necessary  to  save 
their  own  dear  native  isle  from  the  destroyer.  Irishmen 
are  fleeing  to  America,  though  the  kaiser  promises  them 
independence  to  spite  England  as  soon  as  he  has  made 
their  country  like  Belgium.  When  conscription  comes  to 
America  will  they  and  their  brothers  hyphenate  fly  back 
to  their  potato  patch,  or  hasten  farther  west  to  China? 

Other  good  qualities  attend  the  Chinese  worker  in 
California.  It  was  not  the  lowest  grade  of  laborers  that 
came  hither;  the  infamous  coolie  system  never  obtained 
in  the  United  States.  John  is  no  time-server,  this  little 
fellow  from  the  celestial  hills,  nor  pauper.  He  does  not 
demand  like  the  children  of  Nippon  by  virtue  of,  their 
high  heathenism  the  best  of  everything  and  all  for 
nothing.  He  does  not  crowd  out  the  white  residents  from 
the  better  streets  nor  force  himself  into  public  schools ; 
he  requires  but  little  hospital  service,  as  he  has  his  own 
doctor  and  appliances.  He  is  of  less  expense  to  the  gov- 
ernment than  any  other  alien.  Even  in  court  short  work 
is  made  of  his  case,  as  he  is  either  quickly  hanged  or  sent 
to  prison  to  work  his  way  through. 

Even  to-day,  after  sixty  years  of  bad  treatment  on  our 
part,  China  still  holds  open  her  door  and  invites  us  to 
enter  and  take  possession  industrially.  "Others  will  do 
so  if  you  do  not,"  says  Minister  Chow  Tzu  Chi,  "liut  .we 
prefer  Americans."  How  can  we  refuse?  Yet  how  can 
we  accept  while  driving  these  worthy  people  from  our 
shores,  thus  adopting  the  barbarism  which  we  forced' them 
to  discard  half  a  century  ago. 

The  Japanese  are  quite  a  difl^erent  aft'air.  Germany 
and  Japan  are  predatory  nations ;  one  the  world's  ex- 
emplar in  blood-lust,  the  other  an  apt  imitator;  one  old  in 
sin  and  civilization,. the  other  still  instinctively  wild  and 

41 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

immature.  In  the  absence  of  any  ethical  conception  the 
morals  of  both,  or  what  stands  for  morals,  are  founded  on 
force,  brute  force  the  only  measure  of  right  and  wrong, 
of  which  militarism  is  the  essence  and  exponent.  Under 
such  tutelage,  and  with  the  skill  therefrom  acquired, 
Japan  can  well  afford  to  reiterate  expressions  of  friend- 
ship for  the  United  States,  as  no  nation  ever  before  played 
so  completely  as  ours  into  the  hands  of  a  relentless  com- 
petitor and  natural  and  miscrupulous  rival. 

Then  why  is  it,  or  rather  why  was  it  in  the  first  in- 
stance, before  the  concocting  of  an  obstructive  treaty, 
that  after  excluding  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese,  the  more 
disturbing  and  unwelcome  element  were  admitted?  Be- 
cause, first,  there  was  no  exile  of  Erin  on  the  San  Fran- 
cisco sand-lot  to  sound  the  tocsin  of  the  demagogues  so 
successful  as  applied  to  th-e  Chinese?  Then  we  were 
amused  and  pleased  to  see  how  ready  the  little  pagans 
were  to  throw  off  the  outlandish  toggeries  of  Buddha  and 
put  on  the  paraphernalia  of  our  civilization.  And  they 
were  so  polite  and  plausible  withal,  so  sublime  in  their 
pretentions,  so  artful  in  their  impudence,  which  after  all 
was  but  the  impudence  of  ignorance,  permitting  us  to 
profit  a  little  by  them  while  they  profited  much  more 
by  us.  Moreover,  their  arrogance  and  adaptability 
were  fortified  with  guns,  which  they  learned  to  shoot, 
never  the  while  being  concerned  about  death,  a  matter 
they  left  to  the  gods.  Add  to  this  our  indifference,  the 
inattention  of  the  disciples  of  Dennis,  and  the  alertness 
of  the  Japanese,  and  we  have  the  situation  pretty  fairly 
before    us. 

Surrounded  by  the  influences  into  which  young  Japan 
is  unfolding,  where  as  Kipling  says  "there  is  no  crime,  no 
cruelty,  no  abomination  that  the  mind  of  man  can  con- 
ceive which  the  German  has  not  perpetrated,"  to  what 

42 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

heights  of  greatness  may  the  Nipponese  not  attain  in 
another  half  century? 

The  hopes  and  expectations  of  the  Germans  are 
vested  in  a  Christian  kaiser,  those  of  the  Japanese  in  a 
pagan  mikado,  the  one  a  necessarian  the  other  a  fatalist, 
with  little  to  choose  between  them ;  both  are  special 
envoys  of  the  Creator,  and  endowed  with  his  wisdom  and 
goodness.  The  arrogance  and  impudence  of  the  pagan  is 
exceeded  only  by  the  stupendous  pretentions  of  the  Chris- 
tian. The  individual  subject  is  as  potter's  clay  in  the 
hands  of  these  rulers.  Thus  may  be  seen  at  a  glance  the 
prostitution  of  Christian  ideals  and  the  paganism  of 
kaiser  kultur. 

Predatory  peoples  are  pirates ;  their  ethics  the  ethics 
of  pirates,  their  pledges  the  pledges  of  pirates,  their  re- 
ligion the  religion  of  pirates  and  of  pagans,  their  con- 
science the  conscience  of  the  Apache,  merit  in  murder. 
Germany's  one  excuse  for  broken  faith,  "it  was  neces- 
sary." It  was  necessary  to  kill,  it  was  necessary  to  steal. 
Never  a  promise  with  Korea  did  Japan  keep,  never  a 
treaty  with  China.  Germany  breaks  her  word  and  dis- 
regards treaties ;  Nippon  does  the  same.  Germany  loots 
Europe ;  Nippon  loots  China.  Germany  is  Christian, — 
God  save  the  mark ;  Nippon  is  pagan.  Both  are  alike  bar- 
baric ;  each  sees  in  its  chief  ruler  the  divine  essence  in- 
carnate ;  he  is  invincible  and  can  do  no  wrong. 

And  as  intimidation  is  the  primary  principle  of  predatory 
warfare,  best  to  intimidate  cruelty,  intrigue,  treachery, 
and  every  possible  phase  of  infamy  is  employed  without 
restriction.  The  art  is  the  same  as  that  employed  by 
savages  of  the  woods,  war  paint,  feathers,  and  bluster 
attended  by  butcheries  and  burnings,  outrages  exceeding 
if  possible  those  of  the  Torquemada  torture  chamber. 

Just  now  emerging  from  barbarism  with  predatory  in- 
stincts in  full  force,  pillage  and  plunder  still  comes  as 

43 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

natural  to  Japanese  as  ever.  They  have  no  sense  of  obli- 
gation. They  fight  for  plunder  and  because  they  love  to 
dominate.  China  would  be  justified  in  sweeping  from  the 
turtle's  back  its  little  men,  and  some  dav  may  do  so  when 
she  fully  awakens. 

Militarism  is  the  proper  system  for  a  predatory  people, 
— every  man  a  soldier  and  every  soldier  a  serf,  success  in 
murder  and  robbery  being'  the  chief  mark  of  merit.  Their 
majesties  of  Berlin  and  Plades  have  much  in  common, 
with  little  Nippon  a  close  third  in  the  running.  Mean- 
while Satan  sleeps,  well  satisfied  with  the  faithfulness 
and  efficiency  of  his  servants. 

Either  Japan,  with  Germany,  must  abolish  militarism 
or  the  United  States  must  adopt  more  drastic  methods, 
not  for  aggression  but  for  defense.  There  is  no  other  way 
unless  we  would  become  as  Belgium  is,  or  as  China. 

The  Japanese  are  ambitious,  restless,  unscrupulous. 
Since  their  enforced  emancipation  from  barbarism  before 
the  guns  of  Commodore  Perry  in  1853  they  have  made 
giant  strides  in  the  amenities  and  trickeries  of  European 
civilization.  They  are  dangerous  rivals,  doul)ly  danger- 
ous to  California,  since  an  astute  congress,  while  fearing 
them,  has  turned  over  to  them  the  domination  of  the 
Pacific.  Their  demands  however  impudent,  we  must 
hear  and  consider,  for  they  do  things.  With  their  cheap 
labor  and  ship  subsidies  they  are  not  only  fast  controlling 
commerce,  but  their  merchant  marine  is  training  sailors 
which  will  give  them  naval  supremacy  as  well.  It  is  only 
by  a  superior  navy  and  the  strongest  coast  defense  that 
we  can  escape  ultimate  conflict.  Already  Japan  has' her 
Bernhardi  and  book  for  the  capture  of  the  United  States 
and  the  disposition  of  the  spoils. 

Germany  keeps  secret  the  subtleties  of  her  strength ; 
America  opens  her  doors,  and  even  sends  professors 
abroad  to  teach  paganism  how  best  to  despoil  her,  and 

44 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

to  this  insane  propaganda  they  give  names  as  world 
enlig-htenment  and  brotherly  love.  Japan  declares  openly 
for  aggressive  militarism,  the  most  infamous  doctrine 
ever  advanced  by  any  savage  or  so-called  civilized  people. 
Germany's  moral  law  is  briitism,  with  power,  pretence 
and  treachery  the  watchwords  of  her  advancement. 

When  we  receive  from  a  nation  void  of  gratitude  only 
abuse  for  favors  granted ;  when  for  delivering  them  from 
the  depths  of  ignorance  we  are  charged  with  having  sent 
that  "rough  barbarian  Perry  to  our  beautiful  and  peaceful 
shores,  to  our  sweet-smelling  land  of  cherry  blossoms 
and  scented  forests ;"  when  for  the  gifts  of  free  schools, 
free  universities,  free  hospitals,  free  court  service  and 
prisons — for  the  labor  leaders  have  had  removed  for  the 
benefit  of  their  proteges  even  so  small  a  support  of  the 
government  as  the  poll-tax ;  when  with  all  we  have  given 
them  we  do  not  give  them  more — all  we  have  would 
scarcely  satisfy  them — we  are  denounced  as  "a  nation  of 
thieves  with  hearts  of  rabbits,"  with  the  rallying  cry,  "let 
us  take  to  our  arms,  both  by  sea  and  land,  and  punish 
these  devils,"  it  would  seem  that  university  or  any  other 
extension  for  the  benefit  of  the  Japanese  at  the  cost  of 
our  tax-payers  is  somewhat  superfluous. 

Wherefore  might  we  suggest  to  these  thrice  blessed 
pagans  of  Nippon,  that  if  they  would  remain  within  their 
beautiful  and  peaceful  shores,  and  smell  of  their  cherry 
blossoms  and  scented  forests,  attending  only  to  their 
own  affairs,  and  not  go  sniffing  abroad  for  blood  and 
plunder,  picking  up  and  pilfering  hither  and  yon,  it  is 
all  we  would  ask  or  demand  of  them. 

Encouraged  by  success  in  conflicts  with  weaker 
powers  Japan  regards  herself  invincible,  and  bides  her 
time  to  strike ;  when  she  does  strike  it  will  be  the  be- 
ginning of  the  end  either  with  Japan  or  with  us. 

45 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Of  one  thing  we  may  rest  assured,  if  not  indeed  of 
two, — first  the  Japanese  will  never  be  satisfied  until  they 
have  fought  America ;  and  secondly  they  will  win,  as 
they  always  win  in  China,  unless  we  are  fully  prepared  to 
meet  them.  Already  the}^  are  regarding  California  with 
the  same  invidious  eye  so  constantly  cast  on  China,  and 
the  more  placating  we  appear  the  greater  will  be  their 
presumption. 

Would  we  teach  Asia  further  the  tricks  of  our  western 
civilization,  let  China  be  the  beneficiary,  while  we  go  to 
school  to  Nippon  and  there  learn  some  things  which  we 
have  never  taught. 

And  as  for  Germany,  missing  the  contemplated  theft 
and  assassination  of  Paris,  and  the  immediate  conquest 
of  Europe,  for  which  let  all  the  world  forever  thank 
Belgium,  may  it  not  be  possible  that  the  kaiser  now  finds 
himself  with  the  proverbial  bull  by  the  tail,  fearing  to 
relinquish  his  hold  until  terms  of  peace  are  settled?  He 
would  retain  Belgium,  which  cannot  be  until  England 
France  and  Italy  are  wiped  out,  for  to  retain  Belgium 
would  be  wiping  out  England  France  and  Italy. 

Summary :  We  cannot  have  a  World  Centre  of  In- 
dustry arotmd  San  Francisco  bay  without  manufactures ; 
we  cannot  have  manufactures  without  cheap  labor;  we 
cannot  have  cheap  labor  of  the  best  quality  without  the 
admission  of  the  Chinese ;  we  cannot  have  the  Chinese 
or  other  cheap  labor  without  an  administration  at  Wash- 
ington which  after  due  consideration  as  to  its  own  per- 
jietuity,  can  find  time  for  a  little  honest  and  common 
sense  legislation  in  the  interests  of  the  people, — legisla- 
tion possibly  tinctured  with  patriotism;  this,  and  the 
extermination  at  San  Francisco  of  labor  monopolists  and 
exploiters  of  the  workingman. 

46 


THE  FIRST  PORT  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

In  this  great  work  San  Francisco  bay  and  California 
are  one;  city  and  harbor,  slate  ocean  and  shore  are  a 
unit ;  San  Francisco  bay  signifies  California,  and  Cali- 
fornia means  San  Francisco,  all  one  and  indivisible ; 
each  in  its  sphere  doing  its  Avork  and  sharing  in  the 
pleasure  and  profit  of  it.  while  the  glory  of  magnificent 
achievement  shall  fall  on  all  alike. 

All  this  those  who  lay  the  foundations  for  San  Fran- 
cisco's future,  whether  near  or  remote  will  have  for  their 
serious  consideration.  The  development  is  sure  to  come, 
and  along  these  lines;  it  can  come  by  none  other.  And 
when  the  people  of  San  Francisco  bay  are  ready  to  unite 
and  purge  themselves  of  prejudice  and  their  several  cities 
of  industrial  and  political  demagogism  ;  when  with  energy 
and  fearlessness  they  are  ready  to  take  their  destiny  into 
their  own  hands,  determined  on  securing  for  themselves 
the  supremacy  of  Avhat  rightly  belongs  to  them,  whether 
on  sea  or  shore,  with  "Made  at  San  Francisco"  a  hall- 
mark of  merit  the  world  over,  there  will  be  such  an  indus- 
trial development  in  this  last  great  Centre  of  Industry  as 
has  never  yet  appeared  in  any  age  or  nation. 


47 


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